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COAL  AND   COAL-MINING 


EY  WABINGTON  W.  SMYTH,  M.A.,  F.K.S.,  PKES.G. 

CHIEF  INSPKCTOR  OF  THE  MINKS  OF  THK  CKOWN  AND  Of   THE 
DUCHi*   OF  OOKXWALL 


STRAHAN    &    CO.,    PUBLISHERS 

56   LUDGATE   HILL,   LONDON 

1869 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  pages  have  been  written  as  an  ele- 
mentary account  of  Coal,  and  the  modes  of  working 
and  raising  it  from  the  pits.  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  details  of  this  great  branch  of  British 
mdustry  may  probably  object  to  the  brevity  with 
which  portions  of  the  subject  have  been  treated  ; 
but  I  must  plead  in  reply  the  narrow  limits  allotted 
me.  I  have  endeavoured  as  far  as  possible  to 
supply  a  general  view  of  the  methods  and  appliances 
employed  in  various  districts,  giving  the  fuller  promi- 
nence to  a  description  of  the  principal  coal-producing 
regions  at  home  and  abroad,  and  of  the  various  pre- 
cautions needed  for  the  preservation  of  human  life. 

Public  attention  has  been  forcibly  called,  whilst  this 
work  was  in  the  printer's  hands,  to  the  question  of  the 
duration  of  the  coalfields ;  and  the  Royal  Commission, 
appointed  during  the  last  session  of  Parliament,  tes- 
tifies to  the  importance  of  providing  our  political 
economists  with  more  accurate  data  than  it  has 
hitherto  been  possible  to  obtain.  In  my  closing 
chapter  the  same  topic  has  been  somewhat  briefly 


303505 


IV  PREFACE. 

handled ;  and  as  I  have  dwelt,  not  on  speculations,  but 
on  statistical  facts  and  personal  observation,  I  have 
seen  no  grounds,  in  the  numerous  speeches  and 
writings  produced  within  the  last  six  months,  for 
wishing  to  modify  my  statements. 

Finally,  whilst  I  would  refer  the  student  for  ampler 
details  to  the  treatises  of  M.  Combes,  M.  Ponson, 
and  M.  Burat,  Mr.  Dunn,  Mr.  Greenwell,  Mr.  Hedley, 
and  to  other  works  mentioned  in  my  text,  I  trust  that 
this  little  introduction  to  Coal-mining  bears  internal 
evidence  of  not  being  mere  extract  of  books,  and  that 
— whilst  intended  mainly  to  convey  sound  informa- 
tion to  the  unpractised — it  may,  nevertheless,  contain 
matter  of  interest  for  viewers  and  overmen,  to  a  long 
list  of  whom  I  have  to  express  my  thanks  for  many  an 
instructive  and  agreeable  day  underground. 

w.  w.  s. 

LONDON,  September,  1866. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  I.  PAGK 

THE  USE  OF  COAL:  ITS  COMMENCEMENT  AND  EXTENSION  ,         .         1 

CHAPTER  II. 

MODE    OF    OCCURRENCE    OF    CoAL 15 

CHAPTER  III. 
ORGANIC  REMAINS,  AND  ORIGIN  OF  COAL 28 

CHAPTER  IV. 
COALFIELDS  OF  THE  NORTH 44 

CHAPTER  V. 
COALFIELDS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND 54 

CHAPTER  VI. 

COALFIELDS  OF  THE  WEST  OF  ENGLAND,  SOUTH  WALESA  <ND  IRELAND  64 

CHAPTER  VII. 
CONTINENTAL  EUROPEAN  COALFIELDS          ....  72 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
COAL  OF  NORTH  AMERICA .87 

CHAPTER  IX. 

COALFIEIDS    OF   ASIA   AND    OF    THE    SOUTHERN   HEMISPHERE  98 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X.  PAGE 

SEARCH  FOR  COAL;  BORING;  AND  SINKING  OF  SHAFTS      .        .     104 

^CHAPTER  XI. 
DRIVING  OF  LEVELS  AND  CUTTING  THE  COAL     .        .        .  -     .     120 

CHAPTER  XII. 

POST-AND-STALL,    AND    LONG   WORK      .  .  .  .  .          S       130 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND 146 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
RAISING  THE  MINERAL  IN  THE  SHAFTS       .        *        .        .        .159 

CHAPTER  XV. 
DRAINAGE  AND  PUMPING 176 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
LIGHTING  OF  THE  WORKINGS .        .190 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
VENTILATION .     202 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION    .        .        .        .221 

CHAPTER  XIX, 

DURATION  OF  THE  BRITISH  COALFIELDS      ,  .        .        .     237 


COAL  AND  COAL-MINING. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  USE  OF  COAL  I    ITS  COMMENCEMENT  AND  EXTENSION. 

IN  these  our  modern  days,  surrounded  as  we  are  by 
coal  fires,  steam,  and  coal  products,  it  is  somewhat 
difficult  to  imagine  ourselves  in  the  position  of  the 
early  writers  on  natural  history,  who  touched  with 
uncertain  pen  on  what  they  thought  to  be  the  leading 
characters  of  a  rare  and  ambiguous  mineral.  Many 
of  the  passages  which  have  been  quoted  from  ancient 
authors  as  indicating  a  knowledge  of  the  use  of  coal 
have  no  reference  whatever  to  the  substance  to  which 
we  now  give  the  name,  but  indicate  simply  charcoal,  or 
even  wood-fuel.  The  translators  of  the  Scriptures  have 
thus  employed  the  word  coal  in  the  same  sense  as  the 
Greek  anthrax,  the  Latin  carlo,  and  the  German  kohle; 
the  same,  in  fact,  as  was  usual  in  our  own  language, 
until  wood  and  charcoal  came  to  be  supplanted  as  fuel 
by  their  stony  relative. 

Certain  varieties  of  this  mineral  were  noticed  by  the 
ancients,  although  with  little  idea  of  the  probability 
of  their  receiving  any  extensive  application.  Thus 
Theophrastus,  the  pupil  of  Aristotle,  in  an  oft-quoted 
passage,  described,  nearly  300  years  B.C.,  a  fossil  or 

B 


•2:*-  :*'."!• »     »  ^COA£  AND  COAL-MINING. 


stone  coal  of  an  earthy  character,  found  in  Liguria 
(now  the  province  of  Genoa),  and  in  Elis,  on  the  way  to 
Olympias,  capable  of*  kindling  and  burning  like  char- 
coal, and  employed  by  smiths.  Ampelitis,  a  black 
stone  "  like  bitumen,"  and  Gagates,  or  jet,  are  men- 
tioned by  Pliny  and  others  as  available  for  medicinal 
or  ornamental  purposes ;  but  neither  the  naturalists 
who  endeavoured  to  describe  the  various  products  of 
creation,  nor  the  historians  who  enumerated  the  sources 
of  wealth  of  particular  countries,  leave  us  the  impres- 
sion of  their  having  seen  or  heard  of  a  generally  useful 
fossil  fuel.  It  has  been  attempted  to  show  that  the 
early  Britons  worked  coal ;  and  a  stone  axe,  stated  by 
Pennant  to  have  been  found  in  the  out-crop  of  a  coal 
seam  in  Wales,  has  been  well-nigh  worn  out  in  the 
service;  but  we  have  no  satisfactory  evidence  on  the 
subject  prior  to  the  later  days  of  the  Roman  occupation? 
when  roads  had  been  carried  through  many  of  the  coal- 
producing  districts.  Coal  cinders  have  been  found 
amid  the  ruins  of  several  of  the  Roman  stations  in 
Durham,  Northumberland,  and  Lancashire,  and  more 
recently  at  Wroxeter,  the  ancient  Uriconium,  the 
destruction  of  which  place  dates,  according  to  Mr. 
Thomas  Wright,  F.S.A.,  from  the  6th  century.* 

It  is  not  until  the  thirteenth  century  that  we  obtain 
clear  proof  that  coals  were  systematically  raised  for  fuel. 
In  1239  King  Henry  III.  is  stated  to  have  granted  a 
charter  for  this  purpose  to  the  townsmen  of  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne ;  and  so  early  was  the  produce  of  their  pits 
attracted  to  the  devouring  focus  of  London,  that  by  the 
beginning  of  the  next  century  great  complaint  arose  on 

*  The  cinders  were  still  on  the  ground  adjoining  the  baths  when 
the  British  Association  excursion  visited  the  spot  in  September,  1 865. 


THE    USE    OF    COAL  3 

the  injury  done  by  the  coal  smoke  to  the  health  of  the 
citizens.  In  1306,  on  petition  by  Parliament,  King 
Edward  I.,  says  Stowe,  "by  proclamation,  prohibyted 
the  burneing  of  sea-coale  in  London  and  the  suburbs, 
to  avoid  the  sulfr-rous  smoke  and  savour  of  the  firing; 
and  in  the  same  proclamation  commanded  all  persons 
to  make  their  fires  of  wood."  Not  twenty  years,  how- 
ever, passed  away  before  the  inevitable  consequence  of 
a  gradually  pressing  scarcity  of  wood  followed;  the 
banished  "  sea-coale "  again  sailed  up  the  Thames, 
landed  in  the  capital,  and  actually  effected  a  lodgment 
in  the  royal  palace.*  From  that  time  forth,  with  a 
temporary  check  during  the  civil  wars,  the  coal  trade 
grew  with  the  growth  of  the  population,  especially  of 
London  and  the  east  coast,  and  pari  passu  with  the 
rapid  destruction  of  the  forests. 

On  the  Continent  the  coal  basin  of  Zwickau,  in 
Saxony,  appears  to  have  been  the  earliest  known  in 
Germany,  and  it  is  said  that  its  working  can  be  carried 
back  to  the  time  of  the  Sorben wends,  about  the  tenth 
century.  In  1348  the  metal-workers  of  that  town  were 
forbidden  to  pollute  the  air  with  the  smoke  of  coal. 
In  Westphalia  coals  seem  to  have  been  dug  near  Dort- 
mund as  early  as  1302. 

The  first  mention  of  coal-mining  in  Scotland  occurs 
in  a  grant  executed  in  1291  in  favour  of  the  abbot  and 
convent  of  Dunfermline.  Coal  was  probably  worked 
on  a  small  scale  in  several  of  the  English  and  Welsh 
districts  about  this  time ;  and  we  have  the  evidence  of 
the  quaint  old  traveller,  Marco  Polo,  to  show  that  the 
Chinese  were  at  the  same  epoch  well  acquainted  with 
its  use. 

*  "The  History  of  Fossil  Fuel."     London,  1841. 
B    2 


•i  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

One  of  the  earliest  manufactures  which  depended  on 
the  use  of  coal  was  glass -making,  commenced  about 
1619  on  the  banks  *of  the  Tyne.  In  the  year  1635  a 
proclamation  of  King  Charles,  prohibiting  the  impor- 
tation of  foreign  glass,  set  forth  that  "  Sir  Robert 
Mansell  had  by  his  industry  and  great  expense  per- 
fected that  manufacture  with  sea-coal,  or  pit-coal, 
whereby  not  only  the  woods  and  timber  of  this  king- 
dom are  greatly  preserved,  but  the  making  of  all  kinds 
of  glass  is  established  here,  to  the  saving  of  much 
treasure  at  home,  and  the  employment  of  great  num- 
bers of  our  people." 

Up  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  pit-coal 
was  employed  for  little  else  than  household  purposes ; 
but  it  is  not  possible  to  obtain  statistics  of  the  quan- 
tities raised,  excepting  the  amounts  which  were  shipped. 
London  and  the  east  and  south-east  coast,  as  well  as 
some  continental  ports,  were  supplied  by  Newcastle 
and  Sunderland,  which,  about  1704,  shipped  off  in  a 
year  respectively — 

178,143  chaldrons,  or  473,080  tons, 

and 
65,760  chaldrons,  or  174,264  tons. 

In  1750  the  vend  from  both  ports  together  amounted 
to  1,193,457  tons. 

Dublin  and  the  east  coast  of  Ireland  were  supplied 
from  Flintshire  and  Whitehaven ;  whilst  the  require- 
ments of  the  rest  of  the  country  were  variously  con- 
tributed to  by  small  workings  in  the  Lancashire,  Staf- 
fordshire, Warwickshire,  and  other  coalfields.  Many 
experiments  had  in  the  meanwhile  been  tried  in  Staf- 
fordshire and  the  Forest  of  Dean  to  substitute  pit-coal 
for  wood-coal  in  the  smelting  of  iron ;  but  before  this 


THE    USE    OF    COAL.  0 

great  revolution  in  commerce  could  be  accomplished, 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  were  to  be  occu- 
pied in  trials,  disappointments,  losses,  and  delays. 

Meanwhile  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  marked  by  the  first  wavering  steps  of  the  infant, 
Steam,  so  soon  to  develop  into  the  mighty  giant, 
depending  for  his  strength  on  coal,  himself  making 
possible  the  extraction  of  the  fuel  from  amid  dif- 
ficulties till  then  insurmountable,  and  opening  out  a 
thousand  new  methods  for  its  consumption  and  appli- 
cation. Thus  far  coal  had  been  valued  for  the  pro- 
duction of  HEAT  only :  it  was  now  to  enter  upon  a 
second  phase  of  usefulness — that  of  the  generation  of 
FORCE.  Already  ingenious  minds  had  pondered  on  the 
possibility  of  raising  water  from  the  mines  by  aid  of 
the  power  of  steam.  Solomon  de  Caus,  a  French 
engineer,  in  his  work,  published  in  1615,  entitled 
"  Les  Raisons  des  Forces  Mouvantes,"  proposed  the 
experiment  in  scientific  terms ;  and  the  Marquis  of 
Worcester,  in  his  "  Century  of  Inventions,"  in  1655, 
rather  dimly  foreshadowed  what  might  be  done.  But 
it  was  reserved  for  our  countryman,  Captain  Thomas 
Savery,  to  apply  the  steam  practically  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  principle  of  a  vacuum,  and  to  erect 
engines  for  the  actual  unwatering  of  mines  at  Great 
Work,  in  the  parish  of  Breage,  Cornwall,  and  in 
several  other  localities.  In  his  paper,  read  to  the 
Royal  Society  in  1699,  and  in  his  treatise,  "  The 
Miner's  Friend,"  1702,  Savery  describes  the  construc- 
tion of  his  fire-engine,  and  renders  it  very  clear  that 
although  the  coals  to  be  used  were  to  be  "  of  as  little 
value  as  the  coals  commonly  burned  in  the  mouths  of 
the  coal-pits  are,"  this  ingenious  invention,  in  which 


6  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

tlie  water  was  first  "sucked  up"  into  a  receiver  by 
condensing  the  steam  within  it,  and  then  forced  up  a 
stand-pipe  by  the  direct  impulse  of  the  steam,  required 
at  least  another  step  to  fit  it  for  general  application. 
This  step  was  the  interposition  of  a  piston,  on  the 
surface  of  which  the  steam  should  exert  its  power ; 
and  the  application  was  ere  long  made  by  Newconien. 
Some  years,  however,  before  this,  Dr.  Papin,  a  French 
refugee,  had  proposed  an  engine,  in  which  a  piston 
working  in  a  cylinder  should  be  raised  by  the  explosive 
force  of  gunpowder,  and  then  depressed,  on  the  con- 
densation of  the -gases,  by  atmospheric  pressure.  Soon 
afterwards  he  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  same  result,  so 
difficult  of  regulation  with  gunpowder,  by  introducing 
the  elastic  power  of  steam.*  But  although  experiments 
were  made  at  certain  mines  in  the  Auvergne  and  in 
Westphalia,  Papin'"s  contrivance  was  so  far  unsuccessful. 
Newcomen  appears  to  have  been  assisted  by  the 
suggestions  of  Dr.  Hooke,  the  secretary  of  the  Royal 
Society,  and  to  have  first  tried  his  "  fire-engine  "  on 
the  large  scale  at  a  colliery  near  Wolverhampton.  His 
mode  of  condensation  by  cooling  the  outside  of  the 
cylinder  at  every  stroke  proved  to  be  inefficient,  and  it 
was  only  when  he  introduced  an  internal  jet  of  cold 
water  that  success  became  decided.  In  concert  with 
his  assistant,  Galley  of  Dartmouth,  he  erected  near 
Newcastle  and  in  Yorkshire  several  engines  of  23 
inches  cylinder,  and  in  1720  constructed  at  Wheal 
Fortune,  in  Ludgvan,  an  engine  with  cylinder  of 
47  inches  diameter,  working  15-inch  pumps,  to  be 
soon  followed  by  others  at  Wheal  Rose,  near  Redruth, 

*  The  engine  with  its  piston  (pistittum]  is  described  and  figured  in 
the  "  Acta  Eruditorum,"  LipsisB,  1707. 


THE    USE    OF    COAL.  7 

Wheal  Busy,  and  Polgooth  mines.  Coal  was  burnt 
under  their  clumsy  dome-shaped  boilers  at  a  fearful 
rate ;  but  what  matter  ?  It  must  be  done,  if  the  hid- 
den treasures  of  tin  in  the  west,  and  coal  in  the  north 
were  to  be  followed  up  to  depths  that  had  been  proved 
unattainable  by  aid  of  the  water-power  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  mines.  The  convenience  with  which  the 
new  invention  could  be  applied  caused  it  again  often 
to  be  used  as  a  lifter  of  water  to  the  top  of  water- 
wheels  ;  and  thus  whether  applying  its  force  directly  or 
indirectly,  it  prospered,  and  spread  through  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land.  A  few  of  these  old  New- 
comens,  or  atmospheric  engines,  working  the  pump- 
rods  with  the  intervention  of  a  horizontal  "  beam,"  or 
"  bob,"  and  more  or  less  patched  and  modified,  have 
survived  even  to  our  own  times. 

About  the  time  that  the  miners  began  to  employ  on 
a  large  scale  the  facilities  afforded  them  by  the  new 
fire-engine,  there  arose  from  another  side  an  applica- 
tion of  coal,  founded  upon  its  calorific  power  and  on 
the  action  of  the  gaseous  products  of  its  combustion. 
Between  1730  and  1735,  Mr.  Abraham  Darby,  of  Coal- 
brook  Dale,  in  Shropshire,  succeeded  at  length,  through 
the  introduction  of  the  process  of  coking,  in  smelting 
iron  with  pit-coal.  The  iron  trade  of  Great  Britain 
had  at  that  period  sunk  to  a  very  low  ebb,  but  was  now 
destined  to  rise  to  a  height  which  is  one  of  the  great 
marvels  of  all  the  world,  and  that  in  a  chief  measure 
by  the  employment  of  the  beds  of  mineral  fuel  so  won- 
drously  stored  up  in  close  proximity  to  the  iron  ores 
which  have  formed  the  great  staple  of  our  manufacture. 

Still,  during  all  this  period  we  have  no  general 
statistics  of  coal.  More  and  more  of  it  came  to  be 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING . 

consumed  as  wood  became  yearly  more  scarce,  and  as 
population  and  commerce  increased.  After  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  a  more  scientific  treatment 
of  the  fuel  and  of  the  steam  to  be  raised  by  its  aid 
began  to  occupy  attention,  and  the  devices  which  had 
for  their  object  the  economisation  of  coal,  very  soon, 
successful  as  they  were,  increased  a  hundredfold  the 
consumption  of  the  very  substance  they  sought  to 
spare.  Foremost  among  these  was  James  Watt's 
admirably  reasoned  contrivance  of  a  separate  vessel 
for  the  condensation  of  the  steam ;  and  then  followed, 
with  the  rapid  distribution  of  "  Boulton  and  Watt's  " 
engines  over  the  whole  civilised  world,  a  series  of 
improvements,  originating  in  great  part  among  the 
uncertain  adventures  of  the  Cornish  tin  and  copper 
mines,  where  economy  of  fuel  became  one  of  the 
manifest  elements  of  mining  success.  The  names  of 
Murdock,  Woolf,  Hornblower,  Trevithick,  and  Grose 
are  household  words  with  the  miners  who  are  conscious 
of  the  great  extension  of  enterprise  which  has  become 
possible  in  consequence  of  the  successive  introduction 
of  plunger  pumps,  high -pressure  steam,  expansive 
action,  tubular  boilers,  and  the  clothing  of  steam  pipes 
and  cylinders.  True  that  each  of  these  inventions  has 
had  for  its  aim  the  reduction  of  the  cost  of  fuel  in  pro- 
portion to  the  work  done ;  but  the  result  is  an  enormously 
increased  aggregate  consumption  of  coal,  with  a  still 
more  greatly  multiplied  amount  of  work  done  directly, 
and  a  superlative  increase  in  the  general  traffic  and 
prosperity  of  the  kingdom. 

About  the  year  1803  there  was  brought  into  practical 
application  another  grand  employment  of  coal — the 
production  of  LIGHT.  For  upwards  of  a  century 


THE    USE    OF    COAL.  9 

various  experiments,  and  latterly  on  a  manufacturing 
scale,  had  been  made  on  the  distillation  of  coal  in  order 
to  procure  tar  and  oils,  whilst  the  application  of  the 
invisible  gases  produced  was  strangely  neglected, 
notwithstanding  attention  had  been  called  to  the 
moderately  lighting  properties  of  the  fire-damp  so 
largely  evolved  from  many  of  the  northern  collieries. 
Soon  after  1792,  Murdock,  the  engineer  in  charge  of 
some  of  Boulton  and  Watt's  engines,  suggested  that 
the  gas  might  be  conducted  through  tubes  and  em- 
ployed as  an  economical  substitute  for  lamps  and 
candles.  To  light  him  on  his  homeward  way  over 
the  Cornish  downs  he  used  to  carry  a  bag  of  gas 
under  his  arm  with  a  lighted  jet  before  him,  and 
tradition  still  tells  of  his  frightening  the  superstitious 
miners  whom  he  met  in  the  dark,  by  a  sudden  squeeze 
of  his  bag,  which  threw  out  a  long  flame,  taken  assuredly 
for  the  fiery  tongue  of  the  arch  demon  himself. 

The  rapid  extension  of  the  gas  manufacture  within 
the  last  two  generations  need  not  be  dwelt  upon,  and 
the  vast  quantities  of  fossil  fuel  now  employed  for  this 
indispensable  adjunct  of  our  modern  civilisation  may 
be  imagined  when  it  is  remembered  that  hardly  a  town 
exists  within  moderate  distance  of  a  coalfield  or  of 
the  sea  coast,  in  which  gas  is  not  used  for  the  lighting 
of  the  thoroughfares  as  well  as  for  that  of  public  and 
private  buildings. 

The  year  1830  witnessed  the  commencement  of 
another  great  drain  upon  our  coal-mines,  accompanied 
it  is  true  with  enormous  advantages  to  other  trades, 
but  also  originating  in  what  appeared  to  be  a  more 
economical  use  of  coal.  The  application  of  the  fiot 
blast,  by  Neilson,  to  iron  furnaces,  begun  at  the  Scotch 


10  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

works,  saved  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  coal  needed 
for  the  smelting  of  each  ton  of  pig-iron,  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  ironworks  were  forced  by  competition 
to  adopt  the  same  method;  and  in  spite  of  a  very 
common  belief  that  the  quality  of  the  produce  was 
thereby  injured,  the  result  has  been  an  enormous  in- 
crease of  the  total  quantity  of  coal  used  for  this  purpoGe, 
with  a  much  greater  increase  to  the  iron  trade.  If  we 
take,  as  an  example,  the  results  in  Scotland,  we  find 
that  the  ton  of  pig-iron,  as  made  in  1829  at  the  Clyde 
Iron  Works,  required  the  coke  of  8  tons  1£  cwt.  of 
coal,  whilst  in  the  following  year  the  introduction  of 
air  heated  to  300°  Fahr.  brought  down  the  consumption 
per  ton  of  pig  to  5  tons  3£  cwts.  Eight  cwts.  of  coal 
were  consumed  in  heating  the  blast,  so  that  the  actual 
saving  per  ton  of  pig-iron  was  2^  tons.  In  1833,  when 
raw  coal  had  come  to  be  used  instead  of  coke,  1  ton  of 
pig-iron  was  made  with  2  tons  5J  cwts.  of  coal,  which, 
with  8  cwts.  for  heating  the  blast,  made  a  total  of  2 
tons  13  cwts.  Hence  by  the  application  of  the  hot 
blast,  the  same  amount  of  fuel  reduced  three  times  as 
much  iron,  and  the  same  amount  of  blast  did  twice  as 
much  work  as  previously.* 

Now  the  production  of  pig-iron  in  Scotland  has  risen 
as  follows : — 

Tons. 

1820 20,000. 

1830 37,500. 

1839 200,000. 

1851 775,000. 

1861 950,000. 

1864 1,158,750. 

Whence,  at  the  rates  above  quoted,  the  total  con- 

*  Percy's  "  Metallurgy  of  Iron,"  p.  398. 


THE    USE    OF    COAL.  11 

sumption  of  coal  in  iron  smelting  would  have  been,  in 

Tons. 

1820 161,250. 

1864 2,621,671. 

It  must  not  however  be  concluded  that  this  enormous 
development  in  the  Scotch  trade  was  due  to  the  hot 
blast  alone.  Concurrent  with  that  great  improvement 
was  the  employment  of  the  abundant  and  economical 
mixture,  the  "  blackband,"  for  the  discovery  of  which 
Britain  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Mushet.  But  the  main  fact 
remains — that  every  advance  which  tends  to  cheapen 
the  productions  of  manufacture  enlarges  so  widely  the 
field  of  operations,  that  coal,  the  basis  of  the  whole  of 
them,  is  always  demanded  in  ever-increasing  quantity. 

In  the  absence  of  accurate  data  it  is  estimated  that 
in  Great  Britain  about  ten  millions  of  tons  of  coal  were 
raised  in  a  year  at  the  beginning  of  this  century.  The 
continental  production  at  the  time  was  exceedingly 
small,  the  backwardness  of  many  manufactures  and 
the  large  expanses  of  forest  land  having  delayed  the 
necessity  for  turning  to  subterranean  fuel.  Within  a 
short  time  after  the  conclusion  of  the  great  war,  steam- 
engines  were  rapidly  supplanting  or  acting  as  auxiliaries 
to  water  power,  and  the  coalfields  of  our  own  and 
foreign  districts  became  the  scene  of  more  active  re- 
searches. But  it  was  not  until  the  facilitation  of  traffic 
by  means  of  steamboats  and  railroads,  that  the  steady, 
absorbing  march  of  the  present  epoch  commenced. 
When  between  1829  and  1835,  the  locomotive  engines 
running  on  wrought-iron  lines,  and  the  coasting  and 
sea-going  steamers,  were  proved  to  be  a  triumphant 
success,  leading  to  imitation  in  foreign  countries,  and  to 
enormous  multiplication  in  our  own,  a  new  system  of 


12  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

the  distribution  of  raw  material  may  almost  be  said  to 
have  been  started.  Nowhere  is  the  result  more  striking 
than  in  the  London*  district,  which  now  receives  by 
sea,  railway,  and  canal,  upwards  of  Jive  millions  of  tons 
per  annum,  or  doubtless  more  than  the  production  of 
the  entire  kingdom  in  the  earlier  years  of  George  III. 

Many  new  and  striking  applications  of  coal  have 
within  the  last  few  years  rewarded  the  exertions  of 
chemists.  The  once  useless  and  fetid  products  of  its 
distillation  have  been  made  to  yield  sweet  scents  and 
savours.  From  its  naphtha  are  obtained  the  paraffine  oil 
and  the  beautiful  translucent  solid  paraffine,  which  in 
brilliancy  and  purity  excels  wax  itself;  and  from  its 
aniline  are  obtained  a  galaxy  of  brilliant  colours,  among 
which  need  only  be  mentioned  the  popular  mauve  and 
magenta  to  prove  the  varied  forms  under  which  the 
products  of  coal  have  found  their  way  into  the  useful 
arts. 

The  International  Exhibition  of  1851,  possible  only 
under  these  conditions  of  mechanical  advancement  to 
which  we  have  referred,  naturally  directed  the  attention 
of  inquirers  more  forcibly  to  the  statistics  of  mineral 
produce.  It  was  roughly  estimated  that  for  1850 
the  production  of  all  the  British  coal-mines  was 
42,000,000  tons  ;  France  was  raising  4,433,000  tons ; 
Prussia  and  Belgium  followed,  with  smaller  quantities ; 
and  then  Austria,  with  a  little  above  1,000,000  tons. 

In  1853,  Mr.  T.  Y.  Hall,  of  Newcastle,  after  much 
investigation,  stated  the  British  production  to  be 
56,550,000  tons. 

At  length,  in  1854,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Mr.  Robert  Hunt,  of  the  Government  Mining  Record 
Office,  aided  by  the  recently  appointed  inspectors  of 


THE   USE   OF   COAL. 


13 


1854 

64,661,401,  oi 

'wh 

1855 

64,453,070 

»> 

1856 

66,645,450 

» 

1857 

65,394,707 

1858 

65,008,649 

1859 

71,979,765 

1860 

83,208,581 

1861 

85,635,214 

1862 

83,638,338 

1863 

88,292,215 

1864 

92,787,873 

1865 

98,150,587 

» 

coal-mines,  we  obtain  reliable  statistics ;  and  the 
following  table  will  command  the  attention,  if  it  does 
not  excite  the  astonishment,  of  every  reader. 

COAL  PRODUCTION  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Tons.  Tons. 


4,976,902. 

5,879,779. 

6,737,718. 

6,529,483.* 

7,081,949. 

7,412,575. 

7,222,718. 

7,694,558. 

7,529,341. 

8,063,846. 

9,170,477. 


The  vast  quantity  represented  by  these  figures  may 
be  brought  before  the  eye  by  the  following  comparisons, 
supposing  that  we  take  the  approximation  of  one  ton 
being,  as  it  lies  densely  packed  in  the  earth,  one  cubic 
yard.  If  we  take  the  area  of  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
measured  up  close  to  the  houses,  at  eleven  acres,  about 
the  dimensions  of  the  base  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and 
could  stack  the  coal  as  nature  has  done  in  the  seams, 
the  British  coal  raised  last  year  would  form,  on  that 
base,  a  solid  block  of  the  height  of  5,229  feet,  or  as 
high  as  Snowdon  surmounted  by  another  mountain  of 
half  its  height. 

Again,  taking  the  distance  from  London  to  Edin- 
burgh, four  hundred  miles,  the  same  quantity,  similarly 
packed,  would  build  a  wall  the  whole  way,  of  twelve 

*  The  exports  of  1854  to  1858  are  from  the  returns  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  remaining  numbers  are  taken  from  the  statistics  com- 
piled by  Mr.  Robert  Hunt,  F.R.S.,  Mining  Record  Office,  Museum  of 
Practical  Geology. 


14  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

feet  thick  and  ninety -nine  feet  high;  whilst  if  put 
together  in  the  broken  state  in  which  coal  is  commonly 
used,  it  would  give  a  wall  of  more  than  double  that 
thickness. 

This  yearly  production,  obtained  by  the  labour  of 
about  240,000  men,  is  palpably  a  gigantic  effort  for  so 
small  an  area  as  that  of  our  united  coalfields,  and 
naturally  excites  apprehension  for  the  future. 

The  statistics  of  the  produce  of  the  mines  of  most 
of  the  European  countries  are  well  kept  up,  although  a 
few  can  only  be  roughly  estimated,  and  it  is  interesting 
to  compare  the 

ANNUAL  AMOUNT  PRODUCED  BY  THE  CHIEF  COAL-BEARING  COUNTRIES. 

Tons. 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  (1864)  .  .  .  92,787,873. 
United  States  of  America  .  .  .  (about)  14,000,000. 
Prussia,  including  Silesia,  &c.  (1864)  .  .  21,197,265.* 

Saxony  (1863) 2,331,083.* 

Zollverein  States,  besides  the  two  last  (1863)       1,704,340.* 

Austria  (1862) 4,573,031.f 

Belgium  (1864) 1,000,000. 

France  (1864) 11,100,000. 

British  American  Colonies  (1863)  .         .        .         652,854.  J 
Spain    ...        .        .        .        .        .          353,346. 

It  is  hence  evident  that  although  our  favoured 
country  has  so  long  taken  the  lead,  all  civilised 
countries  have  entered  into  the  race  of  competition; 
and  it  becomes  a  matter  of  anxious  inquiry  to  learn 
under  what  circumstances  the  treasure  is  in  each 
country  developed,  and  where  it  is  likely  to  be  best 
expended  or  longest  economised. 

*  Given  in  the  official  statistics  in  zollcentner  t  of  which  20  =  1  ton 
early. 

f  The  Vienna  centner  is  56  kilogrammes,  the  zollcentner  50. 
%  Report  of  Chief  Commissioner  of  Mines,  Halifax,  1865. 


MODE   OF   OCCURRENCE  OF  COAT,.  16 


CHAPTER  II. 

MODE   OF   OCCURRENCE   OF    COAL. 

THE  substance  receiving  the  name  of  true  coal  (in 
contradistinction  to  lignite  and  brown  coal)  is,  in 
almost  all  the  coal-producing  countries,  found  in  beds 
or  seams  divided  from  one  another  by  more  or  less 
thick  strata  or  beds  of  shale,  sandstone  or  grit,  and 
indurated  clay,  the  whole  being  termed  collectively  the 
Coal  Measures,  and  belonging  to  a  still  larger  group  of 
stratified  rocks  called  the  Carboniferous  Formation  or 
System  (Systeme  kouilliere,  or  anthraxifere,  Fr. — Stein- 
kohlen-gebirge,  Ger.). 

It  is  difficult  to  define  exactly  what  constitutes  a 
Coal.  Several  legal  trials  on  a  grand  scale,  in  Edin- 
burgh, London,  and  in  Prussia,  have  only  succeeded  in 
making  it  more  clear  than  ever  that  no  suitable  de- 
finition exists,  and  that  whilst  all  parties  may  agree  in 
recognising  the  characters  of  a  typical  coal,  differences 
of  opinion  will  soon  arise  when  the  substance  to  be 
determined  approaches  the  boundary  of  the  shales  and 
of  the  bitumens. 

It  is  obviously  loose  to  assert  that  "  anything  is  a 
coal  which  is  dug  out  of  the  earth  and  will  burn ; " 
whilst  on  the  other  hand  it  is  inconveniently  strict  to 
demand  any  approach  to  a  definite  composition  as 
indispensable  to  coal.  We  may  fairly  require  of  it 
that  it  be  black  or  dark  brown,  capable  of  direct 
employment  in  furnaces  and  fire-places  for  the  pro- 
duction of  heat,  brittle,  and  not  soluble — like  the 
bitumens — in  ether,  oil  of  turpentine,  or  benzole.  The 


16  COAL   AND    COAL-MINES. 

following  are  the  chief  characters  of  the  various  sub- 
stances regarded  as  coals. 

ANTHRACITE  (Stone,  Kilkenny,  or  Crow-coal). 
Black,  with  black  streak ;  fracture,  conchoidal  ;  does 
not  soil  the  fingers;  specific  gravity,  1*3  to  1'75;  less 
easily  kindled  than  other  kinds  of  coal ;  often  decrepi- 
tates much  in  burning ;  composition,  carbon  in  great 
proportion,  generally  90  to  95  per  cent.,  hydrogen, 
oxygen,  and  nitrogen  in  minute  quantities. 

BITUMINOUS  COAL.  Black,  of  various  shades,  streak 
sometimes  greyish  black  ;  lustre,  more  waxy  than  that 
of  anthracite,  in  some  varieties  dull ;  fracture,  sub- 
conchoidal  to  uneven,  the  substance  often  divided  bj 
cleats  or  joints  into  parallel-faced  figures  (cubical  coal, 
dicey,  <fc.) ;  specific  gravity,  1*25  to  1-4;  composition, 
generally  from  73  to  90  per  cent,  of  carbon,  8  to  22 
per  cent,  of  oxygen,  hydrogen,  and  nitrogen,  with  (as 
in  anthracite)  a  variable  amount  (3  to  30  per  cent.)  of 
earthy  matter  constituting  the  "ash." 

The  term  bituminous  coal  is  somewhat  deceptive,  and 
it  must  be  remembered  that  it  does  not  mean  that  any 
bitumen  (or  mineral  pitch,  soluble  in  ether,  &c.)  is 
contained  in  it,  but  that  the  gases,  oxygen,  hydrogen, 
and  nitrogen,  enter  more  largely  into  its  composition 
than  in  anthracite,  and  give  it  a  more  flaming  character 
in  burning.  The  varieties  generally  recognised  are 
mostly  named  after  their  application  or  chief  proper- 
ties :  Free-burning,  steam  or  smokeless  coal,  non-caking 
coal.  These,  in  different  grades,  approach  towards  the 
anthracites,  and  are  chiefly  valued  for  engine  and  smelt- 
ing purposes.  They  often  exhibit,  in  parts  of  the  seams 
at  least,  a  peculiar  fibrous  structure,  passing  into  a 
singular  toothed  arrangement  of  the  particles,  called 


MODE    OF    OCCURRENCE   OF    COAL.  27 

cone-in-cone,  or  "  crytallised  coal."  Some  of  these 
"  dry  "  coals  will  coke,  but  the  smalls,  from  their  not 
agglutinating,  cannot  be  used  for  that  purpose.  With 
the  addition,  however,  of  pitch  or  tar  to  the  amount  of 
8  or  10  per  cent.,  the  small  may  be  made  into  "  patent 
fuel,"  or  "  agglomerated  coal/' 

Caking-coals  are  those  which  tend  to  partially  fuse 
when  burning ;  emitting  jets  of  gas,  and,  as  a  rule, 
giving  off  abundant  flame  and  smoke.  The  "  household 
coals  "  are  generally  of  this  variety,  and  are  valued 
in  great  measure  according  to  their  freedom  from  ash. 
The  "  smalls  "  have  the  valuable  property  of  fusing 
together  into  large  masses  when  duly  heated  ;  whence 
they  are  abundantly  turned  into  coke  for  iron-smelting 
and  for  burning  in  locomotives. 

A  single  seam  or  bed  often  contains  layers  of 
different  descriptions  of  coal,  which  may  in  some 
cases  advantageously  be  divided  from  one  another  and 
separately  sold  for  divers  commercial  purposes. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  this  was  noticed  by  me  in 
the  "  Top-hard,"  a  famous  Derbyshire  and  Yorkshire 
seam,  at  Handsworth,  where  its  aggregate  thickness 
was  55  inches.  The  divisions  were  as  follows  : — 

Inches. 


Roof  coal     .        .        .     2 

Batt  (black  shale)        .     2 

useless,  thrown  away. 

' 

Brassy  piece  (pyritous)     5  > 

Rough,  bright                .     4 

for  house  fires. 

Best  bright  . 

.     4 

good  for  making  soft  coke. 

Top  hard      . 

'     41 

Dead  bed     . 

.     8 

"converting"  coal,  for  steel  making. 

Bottom  hard 

.     f] 

Rough  bright 

.    6 

for  house  fires. 

Soft  bright  . 

.     3 

for  soft  coke. 

Dirt,  parting, 

9  to  12 

Holing  coal  . 

.     4 

very  dusty  soft  coal 

18  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

Cannel  is  commonly  considered  a  variety  of  bitu- 
minous coal,  with  the  beds  of  which  it  is  not  unfre- 
quently  associated  id  parallel  layers ;  but  it  is  a  fair 
question  whether  it  should  not,  in  scientific  nomen- 
clature, be  separated  from  the  coals  proper.  It  is  black 
or  brownish,  dull  in  lustre,  breaks  with  a  flat  con- 
choidal  fracture,  is  not  made  up  like  ordinary  coal  of 
thin  laminae,  does  not  soil  the  fingers,  often  contains 
teeth  and  scales  of  fishes,  and,  according  to  some  of 
our  best  microscopists,  is  readily  distinguishable  from 
coal  by  the  general  absence  of  vegetable  structure.  Its 
name,  from  cannyl,  a  "  candle,"  is  derived  from  the 
readiness  with  which  it  lights  and  gives  off  a  steady 
flame.  Some  varieties,  however — parrot  coal  (Scot- 
land) and  rattlers  (Yorkshire) — decrepitate  and  crack 
loudly  on  the  fire.  Cannel  is  largely  employed  for 
gas-making. 

It  is  by  no  means  easy,  if  at  all  feasible,  to  draw  a 
distinct  line  of  demarcation  between  cannel  and  the 
black  basses,  bats,  or  crisp  shales,  which  occur  in  the 
coal  measures,  but  contain  too  much  earthy  matter  to 
allow  them  to  be  of  present  value.  And  between  all 
these  and  the  torbanite,  or  "  Boghead  mineral,"  there 
exists  a  relationship  which  makes  the  difference  only 
one  of  degree.  This  last  is  a  brown,  tough  substance, 
containing  little  more  than  9  per  cent,  of  carbon,  60  to 
69  per  cent,  of  volatile  matter,  and  the  "ash"  so  abun- 
dant and  so  equably  diffused  through  the  mass,  that 
when  the  mineral  has  been  "  burnt,"  or  had  the  vola- 
tile parts  extracted  by  distillation,  it  is  taken  out  of 
the  retort  blanched  in  colour,  but  in  volume  looking 
just  as  when  it  was  put  in.  Its  great  value  con- 
sists in  its  oil  and  gas-yielding  properties — a  ton  of 


MODE    OF    OCCURRENCE    OF    COAL.  19 

this  mineral  giving  as  much  as  15,400  cubic  feet  of 
gas,  whilst  good  cannels  give  but  8,000  to  10,000 
feet.  Torbanite  is  classed  by  some  authors  as  a  dis- 
tinct mineral  species,  and  by  others  as  a  bituminous 
shale. 

Lastly,  we  have  BROWN  COAL,  or  LIGNITE,  a  mineral 
— more  distinctly  than  any  of  the  foregoing — formed 
of  a  mass  of  vegetable  matter;  some  stems,  in  fact 
(lignite  proper),  presenting  the  appearance  of  unde- 
composed  wood.  Colour,  brown  to  pitch-black ;  lustre 
sometimes  resinous,  sometimes  dull ;  specific  gravity 
0*5  to  1*5;  fracture  various;  burns  easily,  with  a 
smoky  flame  and  unpleasant  odour.  Composition, 
50  to  70  per  cent,  of  carbon,  a  much  larger  proportion 
of  oxygen  than  in  the  bituminous  coals,  hydrogen  and 
nitrogen  about  the  same.  A  large  amount  of  water 
generally  present.  Varieties  of  it  are  termed — accord- 
ing to  their  aggregation — pitchy-coal  (peck  kohle\ 
slaty-coal  (schiefer  kohle),  paper-coal  or  dysodil,  bast- 
coal,  needle-coal,  and  earthy-coal. 

Certain  examples  of  the  brown  coal  of  the  better 
sort  so  closely  resemble  the  good  bituminous  coals  as 
to  be  indistinguishable  by  any  trenchant  ditference  of 
composition  in  appearance.  It  has,  however,  been 
usual  to  apply  this  name  to  all  the  coals  which  occur 
in  formations  more  recent  than  the  true  carboniferous 
period.  Thus  the  name  brown  coal — not  a  very  happy 
one — embraces  as  many  qualities  and  varieties  as  does 
the  old  family  name  COAL,  from  which  it  is  now  held  to 
be  a  distinct  off-shoot. 

For  a  general  account  of  the  geological  phenomena 
which  have  to  do  with  the  occurrence  of  the  coal- 
measures,  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  "  Treatise 

c  2 


20  COAL   AND    COAL-MINES. 

on  Geology,"  by  the  late  General  Portlock,*  or  to  some 
of  the  various  "  handbooks  "  and  "  manuals  "  already 
before  the  public.  We  have  only  space  in  the  present 
little  volume  to  deal  with  those  parts  of  the  subject 
which  are  more  specially  related  to  the  finding  and 
working  of  coal. 

Our  descriptions  will  almost  entirely  have  reference 
to  the  strata  of  the  true  carboniferous  system,  as  being 
without  comparison  the  most  important.  It  is  there, 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  Palaeozoic  or  "ancient  life" 
division  of  the  earth's  crust,  that  the  great  coalfields  of 
the  world  are  sought  out  and  worked.  But  some  coun- 
tries, as  Italy,  for  example,  are  not  fortunate  enough  to 
possess  any  of  these  within  the  ken  of  man,  and  must 
content  themselves  with  brown  coal  alone ;  others,  like 
Hungary,  have  brown  coal  of  several  successive  periods 
and  of  very  different  qualities.  Much  value  will  then 
attach,  locally,  to  this  minority  among  the  coals,  and 
the  following  table  will  show  with  clearness  the  succes- 
sion of  the  entire  series  of  strata  in  their  true  geo- 
logical sequence,  along  with  the  different  classes  of 
"oal  which  they  have  been  proved  to  contain. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  whilst  the  annexed  table 
exhibits  the  natural  sequence  where  all  the  strata  are 
developed,  it  frequently  happens  that  some  of  them  are 
missing  from  their  places.  Thus,  in  Belgium  and 
North  France  the  coal-measures  lie  immediately  be- 
neath the  chalk  or  cretaceous  beds.  In  South  Stafford- 
shire the  carboniferous  limestone  and  other  strata 
under  the  coal,  down  to  the  Silurian  rocks,  are  want- 
ing. In  South  France  (St.  Etienne)  all  stratified 
rocks  are  absent,  and  the  coal-measures  rest  directly 

*  Weale's  Kudimentary  Series. 


TABLE  OF  THE  STRATIFIED  ROCKS. 

Showing  the  position  of  Beds  of  Fossil  Fuel. 


Group. 

Chief  Divisions. 

Locality  of  Coal  or  Brown  Coal. 

0 

o 

i 

.2  ® 

a)  C 
S   0 

Norwich  Crag. 
Bed  and 
Coralline  Crag. 

« 

•4 
t> 

§ 

£H" 
M 

a> 

1 

Faluns  of  Touraine, 
Molasse  Sandstones, 
&c. 

Austrian  Alps. 
Germany. 
Leafbeds  in  Mull. 
Lignite  in  Antrim? 
Vancouver  Island. 
Bovey,  Devon  (Heer). 

g 

EH 

i  g 

W  § 

Bagshot  Sands. 
London  Clay. 
Woolwich  Beds,  &e. 

Tyrol,  and  the  Venetian  Alps. 
South  Styria,  some  beds  of  fathoms  in 
thickness. 

d 

o 

Cretaceous. 

Upper  Chalk. 
Lower  Chalk. 
Chalk  Marl. 
Upper  Greensand. 
Gault. 
Lower  Greensand. 

Austrian  Alps,  in  the  Gosau  beds. 
Coal,  up  to  4ft.  thick,  Lettowitz,  &c.,  in 
Moravia. 

Santa  Fe  de  Bogota,  South  America. 

w 
g 

Weal- 
den. 

Weald  Clay. 
Hastings  Sand. 

Good  brown  Coal  beds  in  North  Ger- 
many. 

SECONDARY,  OR 

Oolitic  or 
Jurassic. 

Portland  Oolites. 
Oxford       do. 
Bath           do. 

The  Lias. 

Purbeck  dirt-bed,  with  Lignite. 
Mori,  Tyrol. 
Kimmeridge  "  coal." 
Productive  coal  in  Lower  Oolite,  Brora; 
Yorkshire  ;  Pennsylvania. 
Excellent   coal   at    Funfkirchen,  and 
Steierdorf  in  South  Hungary. 

| 

Rhcetic  beds. 
Keuper. 
Muschelkalk. 
New  red  Sandstone. 

l| 

*f 

New  red,  in  part. 
Magnesian  Limestone. 
Lower  red  Sand. 

Coalfields  of  India  not  older  than  this. 

V,  OR  PALAEOZOIC. 

TO 

I 

Coal-measures,  often  divi- 
sible into  3  groups. 

Millstone  grit. 
Carboniferous  Limestone. 

True  Coal  in  England,  Scotland,  Wales, 
France,  Belgium,  Prussia,  Bohemia, 
Moravia,  Spain,  the  United  States, 
Nova  Scotia. 
Anthracite   in   South  Wales,  Ireland, 
Pennsylvania. 
Coals  in  North  England. 
Coal     in    Northumberland,    Scotland, 
Eussia. 

PRIMAB 

|| 

ft« 

Old  red  Sandstone. 
Slaty  rocks, 
Killas,  Sic. 

New  South  Wales  Coals  appear  to  be- 
long to  period  from  hence  up  to  the 
Trias. 

Silurian. 

Ludlow  rocks,  &c. 
Bala  beds. 
Llandeilo  Flags. 
Cambro-Silurian  Slates. 

Anthracite  in  Co.  Cavan,  and  Isle  of 
Man  (Laxey  mine)  ;  Norway. 

22  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

upon  granite.  Similarly,  it  has  to  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  coal  itself  may  possibly  not  be  present,  al- 
though the  group  ab®ve  it  and  the  group  below  it  may 
be  in  their  places  ;  but  the  order  of  the  superposition  is 
never  changed. 

Those  who  learn  their  practical  lesson  in  one  single 
coalfield  are  apt  to  acquire  notions  about  the  physical 
conditions  which  require  to  be  corrected  by  visits  to 
other  districts,  to  make  them  capable  of  general  appli- 
cation. Thus,  whilst  the  total  thickness  of  the  coal- 
measures  in  Shropshire  and  South  Staffordshire  is  only 
from  1,000  to  1,600  feet  in  thickness,  in  North  Staf- 
fordshire it  reaches  5,000  feet,  in  South  Wales  14,000 
or  15,000  feet,  and  in  Saarbriicken,  in  Prussia,  no  less 
than  20,000  feet. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  series  of  rocks,  termed  coal- 
measures,  consists  of  shales  or  indurated  slaty  clay, 
variously  coloured  grey,  bluish,  or  black  (clod,  bind, 
batt,  metal,  &c.,  of  the  colliers) ;  of  dense  clays,  a  bed 
of  which  almost  invariably  underlies  every  seam  of 
coal  (warrant,  pounson,  clunch,  &c.)  ;  and  of  sandstone 
(post,  rock,  or  stone)  of  various  degrees  of  hardness  and 
roughness  of  grain,  though  seldom  containing  pebbles, 
except  in  the  strata  which  occupy  quite  the  lower  part 
of  the  series.  The  actual  beds  of  coal,  then,  from  an 
inch  or  two  thick,  up  to  8  or  10  feet  (generally  con- 
sidered "  workable"  when  above  18  inches  or  2  feet  in 
thickness),  and  making  up  in  the  aggregate  perhaps 
100  feet  of  coal,  form  but  an  inconsiderable  part,  in 
dimensions,  of  the  great  mass  of  rocks  with  which  they 
are  interstratified. 

Whatever  may  be  the  form  of  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  it  rarely  happens  that  the  coal-measures  under 


MODE   OF   OCCURRENCE   OF   COAL.  23 

it,  whether  deep  or  shallow,  lie  in  a  flat  position  for 
more  than  a  small  distance.  They  are  found  to  incline 
(dip  or  pitch)  more  or  less  regularly  from  the  moderate 
angles  of  6  or  8°  to  as  much  as  25  or  30°,  a  "  sharp 
pitching,"  or  even  in  exceptional  cases  to  70  or  80° 
(rearing  or  edge  seams).  ,  Whatever  happens  in  this 
way  to  one  of  the  beds,  the  others  are  similarly  affected, 
because  the  strata  throughout  this  system  or  group  are 
all  conformable  or  parallel.* 

The  inclined  position  of  the  beds  will  necessarily 
bring  them  at  some  point  or  other  to  the  surface,  un- 
less they  are  overlaid  by  some  newer  formation  de- 
posited unconformably  upon  the  ends  of  the  upturned 
strata.  Hence  it  is  that  a  great  insight  into  the  cha- 
racter of  a  coal  district  may  be  obtained  by  a  careful 
study  of  the  surface,  especially  in  brook-courses,  which 
run  more  or  less  in  the  direction  of  the  dip  and  rise  of 
the  seams.  If  we  follow  out  the  subject  over  a  larger 
area,  we  shall  find  many  variations  to  take  place,  and 
the  coalfield  assuming  a  form  which  may  be  traced  as 
on  a  map  if  the  tract  be  surrounded  by  older  forma- 
tions, but  about  which  there  will  be  uncertainty  if  the 
measures  are  observed  to  dip  beneath  other  and  newer 
groups  of  rock.  When  the  beds  dip  for  a  while  and 
then  ascend  or  rise,  they  form  a  trough  or  saddle,  and 
when  they  rise  on  all  sides  towards  the  surface,  as  in 
the  Forest  of  Dean,  they  constitute  a  basin.  The  out- 
line of  the  shapes  into  which  the  coalfields  have  been 
brought  by  the  forces  of  elevation  and  depression  may 
be  studied  in  the  geological  maps ;  but  where  these 

*  Certainca  ses  have  been  observed  in  which,  one  portion  of  the  coal- 
measures  is  slightly  unconformable  to  another ;  but  this  does  not 
interfere  with  the  doctrine  of  the  general  parallelism  of  the  beds. 


24  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

forces  have  exercised  their  powers  on  a  grander  scale, 
the  measures  are  often  folded  back,  corrugated,  or  con- 
torted in  such  a  manner  as  to  present  great  complexity. 
Examples  of  this  may  be  seen  in  Pembrokeshire,  at 
Yobster,  Somersetshire,  and  in  the  Belgian  coalfield. 

In  addition  to  this  general  disturbance  from  the 
original — more  or  less  horizontal — position  in  which 
the  beds  must  have  been  deposited,  they  have  been  cut 
through  by  inclined  planes  of  fissure,  and  so  dislocated 
that  they  are  now  lower  on  the  one  side  of  the  line  of 
fault  than  on  the  other.  The  amount  of  throw  or  leap 
may  be  only  a  few  inches  or  feet,  in  which  case  the 
workings  are  not  much  affected ;  but  the  movement 
may  in  many  instances  be  shown  to  have  arrived  at 
hundreds,  and  more  rarely,  to  thousands,  of  feet.  A 
great  number  of  these  troubles  within  a  small  space 
may  render  a  seam  of  coal  so  "faulty"  as  to  be  worth- 
less ;  whilst,  if  they  are  filled  with  clay,  and  suitably 
distant  from  one  another,  they  serve  a  useful  purpose 
in  dividing  a  coalfield  into  water-tight  compartments, 
and  a  jealous  eye  is  thence  kept  on  their  security. 

If  we  now  turn  back  from  the  larger  view  of  the 
whole  group  of  strata,  and  look  at  the  seam  itself,  we 
shall- note,  first,  its  thickness, — an  amount  varying 
generally  from  18  inches  to  8  feet.  In  Somersetshire 
they  contrive  to  work  seams  with  only  11  inches  of 
coal !  At  Whitehaven  and  in  the  upper  measures  in 
Fintshire,  seams  of  10  and  12  feet  thick  are  worked. 
In  South  Staffordshire,  30  to  36  feet,  at  Pictou,  Nova 
Scotia,  36  feet,  and  at  Pottsville,  U.S.,  40  feet,  are  the 
thicknesses  of  exceptional  seams,  put  together  by  the 
superposition  of  several  of  ordinary  dimensions.  A 
very  thick  one  will  rarely  be  of  clean  coal  throughout  \ 


MODE    OF    OCCURRENCE    OF    COAL.  25 

partings  will  occur,  of  clod  or  various  earthy  material, 
which,  if  of  a  few  inches,  may  not  occasion  much  in- 
convenience, but  if  they  get  to  be  more  than  18  inches 
or  2  feet,  may  practically  interfere  with  the  possi- 
bility of  working  advantageously.  Iron  pyrites  or 
brasses  will  sometimes  run  with  a  line  of  parting,  and 
needs  to  be  carefully  picked  out.  The  partings  are 
often  mere  planes  of  division,  and  are  then  sometimes 
smooth  surfaces,s&'^s,requiring  caution  in  undercutting ; 
but  are  more  generally  films  of  black,  soft,  and  fibrous 
coaly  matter,  apparently  made  up  of  small  fragments 
of  carbonised  wood.  Then  comes  the  physical  condition 
of  the  coal,  to  whichever  of  the  kinds  above  enumerated 
it  may  belong.  Is  it  dense,  hard  and  unjointed,  it 
will  be  expensive  to  cut,  but  more  valuable  from  giving 
a  large  proportion  of  "round"  or  massive  coal.  Is  it 
divided,  like  the  Derbyshire,  by  one  set  of  backs  or 
faces,  running  most  regularly  parallel,  it  will  need  a 
special  direction  of  the  working  faces.  Is  it,  on  the 
contrary,  divided  by  two  sets  of  divisional  cleat,  as  in 
some  of  the  Northern  coal,  the  direction  is  not  so 
important.  These  divisional  planes  are  generally  al- 
most vertical,  but  in  South  Wales  (Pontypool,  Mer- 
thyr,  &c.)  they  dip  at  a  considerable  angle  ;  and  when 
they  here  and  there  meet  a  "  rider  "  inclined  the  other 
way,  they  form  a  loose  mass  of  coal,  very  dangerous  to 
unwary  colliers. 

They&w,  thill,  or  seat  (pavement,  Scot.),  of  the  coal 
is  an  underclay,  generally  good  for  fire-brick  :  if  soft,  it 
is  apt  to  heave,  under  the  pressure  from  above,  into  the 
opened  roads,  and  greatly  to  multiply  expenses.  Here 
and  there  a  quartzose  silt  forms  the  seat,  especially  in 
some  of  the  lowest  seams  (Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  &c.) 


26  COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 

It  is  so  hard  as  to  make  a  capital  road  stone,  known  a 
Canister,  but  bears  the  black  rootlets  thick  in  it,  whic  i 
we  see  in  the  ordinary  bottom-clay,  spaven,  or  warrant 
The  ganister  is  commonly  a  foot  or  20  inches  in  thick- 
ness, and  has  clay  again  beneath  it. 

Lastly,  the  roof  or  top  of  the  seam  is  one  of  the  mos 
important  items  in  the  economy  of  its  working.  A 
good  tenacious  shale  or  bind  is  the  most  favourable. 
But  rock  or  sandstone  roofs  there  are,  which  will  hold 
up  for  a  very  great  breadth  of  ground,  and  come  down 
pretty  manageably,  whilst  others  can  hardly  be  trusted. 
It  is  most  fortunate  that  the  frequent  planes  of  division 
which  almost  invariably  split  up  the  coal,  do  not  pass 
up  into  the  roofs.  If  the  immediate  cover  of  the  coal 
be  too  short  or  soft  or  cracky  to  stand  well,  it  may  be 
necessary  to  leave  some  inches  of  coal  as  a  roof,  or 
again  (depending  on  the  strata  overhead),  it  may  be 
better  to  rip  down  a  foot  or  two  (or  even  four  or  five 
feet  sometimes)  to  afford  security  to  the  roads 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  although  the  coal- 
seams  are,  as  a  rule,  more  persistent  and  regular  than 
any  of  the  beds  of  rock  which  accompany  them,  they 
are  subject  to  variations  which  may  influence  their 
value,  and  often  withia  a  small  area.  The  thinning  by 
a  gradual  depression  of  the  roof  till  sometimes  the 
entire  coal  is  gone,  but  for  a  certain  width  only,  is  a 
kind  of  fault  (nip  or  wanf),  that  has  often  been  noticed, 
and  is  confined  to  one  seam,  not  affecting,  or  only 
slightly,  those  above  it  or  below  it.  An  interesting 
example  of  this  kind  occurs  at  Denby  Colliery,  Derby- 
shire, where  a  channel  of  320  yards  wide  was  found 
eroded  in  the  "  deep  hard"  coal  for  half  a  mile  in 
length,  whilst  the  next  seam  above  it,  the  "  upper  soft 
coal,"  has  proved  continuous,  and  been  worked  over  the 


MODE    OF    OCCURRENCE    OF    COAL.  27 

entire  area.  Another  sort  of  thinning  is  where  the 
floor  rises,  if  sharply,  in  a  "hog-back"  or  saddle;  ii 
gently,  like  a  swelling  undulation,  which  subsides  again 
in  10,  20,  or  40  yards,  and  is  succeeded  sometimes  not 
merely  by  the  usual  normal  thickness  of  the  coal,  but 
by  an  exceptional  amount,  to  make  up  as  it  were  for 
the  thinness  to  which  it  had  before  been  reduced. 

One  of  the  most  notable  examples  of  this  kind  is  in 
the  fine  colliery  of  Seaton  Delavel,  where  throughout  a 
depression  of  1,000  yards  in  length  between  the  old 
and  the  new  or  Forster  pits,  and  for  120  yards  wide, 
the  seam  is  from  six  to  seven  feet  thick,  whilst  on  both 
sides  it  dwindles  rapidly  till  much  of  it  is  but  2  feet 
6  inches,  and  has  been  unworkable. 

In  the  Forest  of  Dean  the  Coleford  high  Delf  seam, 
averaging  4J  feet  thick,  is  here  and  there  reduced  to 
much  less,  and  then  rapidly  expands  till  (Miles'  Level 
colliery)  it  attains  9  and  even  11  feet  thickness. 
Variations  so  considerable  are  more  frequent  in  the 
lower  than  the  upper  coals,  and  coupled  with  the 
smoothly  polished  under  surface  which  may  occasionally 
be  noticed,  lead  me  to  think  that  the  coal  must  have 
remained  in  a  plastic  condition  long  after  it  was  covered 
up  with  sediment,  and  that  it  has  been  much  squeezed 
and  moulded  by  the  various  movements  to  which  the 
strata  have  been  subjected. 

The  introduction  of  bands  of  foreign  matter,  as  part- 
ings, between  the  laminae  of  the  coal,  has  already  been 
described ;  and  these,  so  apt  in  particular  districts  to 
multiply  as  well  as  to  increase  in  bulk,  are  frequently 
to  be  added  to  the  other  elements  of  uncertainty  which, 
in  some  regions  more  than  others,  render  coal-mining 
a  more  speculative  undertaking  than  it  at  first  sight 
would  appear  to  be. 


28  COAL   AND    COAL-MINES. 


C5APTEK  III. 

ORGANIC   REMAINS,   AND   ORIGIN  OF   COAL. 

NOT  a  doubt  can  exist  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have 
either  observed  for  themselves  or  fairly  examined  the 
description  of  others,  that  the  coal  has  been  produced 
from  an  accumulation  of  various  kinds  of  trees  and 
smaller  plants.  The  bed  of  fire-day  or  clunch  which 
lies  beneath  each  seam  is  full  of  stems  and  dark  fila- 
ments ;  the  shale  overhead  is  often  so  charged  with  the 
brightly  preserved  fronds  of  ferns,  flattened  trunks  of 
trees,  and  various  strange  forms  of  leaf,  as  to  rival  all 
that  can  be  shown  in  a  princely  conservatory.  The 
sandstones  contain  fragmentary  trunks  and  branches, 
and  the  coal  itself  may  be  seen,  on  carefully  dividing 
its  laminse,  to  show  the  impressions  of  numerous  vege- 
tables, with  at  intervals  a  film  of  soft  silky  "  mineral 
charcoal ; "  whilst  many  parts  in  which  the  unassisted 
eye  can  trace  no  structure,  reveal  in  their  slices  under 
the  microscope  plain  traces  of  the  Flora  of  the  primeval 
world. 

These  appearances  vary  much  in  different  coalfields, 
and  in  the  different  seams  of  a  single  field.  Certain 
authors,  especially  Dr.  Goppert,  of  Breslau,  are  of 
opinion  that  many  seams  can  be  safely  distinguished 
by  the  difference  of  the  plants  associated  with  them. 
Mr.  Salter,  following  Mr.  Binney  and  Professor  Phillips, 
has  recently  endeavoured  to  show,  for  certain  seams  of 
our  own  country,  that  there  are  useful  distinguishing 
characters  in  the  animal  remains  (mollusca,  fish,  &c.) 
which  often  occur  in  the  roof  shales.  But  the  subject, 
noble  and  every  way  interesting,  has  strangely  been 


ORGANIC   REMAINS,    AND    ORIGIN   OF    COAL. 


left  to  the  handling  of  occasional  visitors  of  collieries, 
and  needs  much  further  inquiry. 

We  will  endeavour  to  put  together  a  brief  synopsis 
of  the  principal  forms  of  vegetation  which  are  met  with 
in  the  coal-measures,  premising  only  that  whilst  some 
500  different  plants,  derived  from  this  source,  have 
been  described,  a  short  sketch  like  the  present  will  be 
mainly  useful  if  it  lead  the  inquirer  to  study  the  works 
of  some  of  the  authors  who  have  contributed  to  this 
branch  of  knowledge — Witham,  Lindley,  and  Hutton, 
Brongniart,  Goppert,  Binney,  Sternberg,  Corda, 
Dawson,  Williamson,  Hooker,  and  Bunbury. 

SIGILLAEIA.  A  great  proportion  of  the  actual  coal 
appears  to  have  been  formed  of  the  prostrate  flattened 
trunks  of  this  tree,  mostly  by  carbonised  bark  alone. 
They  are  sometimes  as  much  as 
3  to  5  feet  in  diameter  and  30  to 
60  feet  in  length.  Their  beautiful 
fluted  and  symmetrically  scarred 
patterns  may  often  be  seen  cross- 
ing one  another  in  luxuriant  confu- 
sion in  the  roof  from  under  which 
the  coal  has  been  removed.  I  had 
an  excellent  opportunity  some 
years  ago,  in  conjunction  with 
Mr.  Beete  Jukes,  of  observing  the 
bared  upper  surfaces  of  successive 
steps  of  the  Dudley  thick  coal 
when  it  was  being  worked  open  to 
the  daylight,  and  when  they  all 
showed  fine  impressions  of  Sigil- 
laria. 

Some    thirty-five   species   of    this   tree  have  been 
described,  but  they  appear  to  have  no  analogues  in  the 


Fig.  1.  Sigillaria  elegans. 

Forest  of  Dean. 
(Half  the  natural  size.) 


30  COAL    AND    COAL-MIXES. 

present  world.  Sigillaria  stems  of  full  thickness  and 
a  few  feet  in  height  are  frequently  found  erect,  some- 
times hundreds  together  in  a  very  small  area.  Often 
they  stand  based  close  upon  the  seam  of  coal,  and  most 
unfortunately  for  the  safety  of  our  colliers,  since, 
conical  as  they  are,  and  generally  surrounded  by  a 
smooth  surface,  they  are  apt  to  drop  out  without  warn- 
ing, in  a  mass  weighing  from  a  few  cwts.  to  a  ton.  They 
are  thus  commonly  known  as  bell-moulds,  coal-pipes, 
or  cauldron-bottoms,  and  may  be  traced  by  a  slight 
circular  outline,  often  formed  of  bright  coal. 

STIGMARIA.     The  curious  plant  found  so  universally 
in  the  clays  or  indurated  sills  beneath  the  coal,  was  long 


Fig.  2.  Stigmaria  ficoides.    (Half  natural  size.) 

supposed  to  belong  to  a  distinct  family,  but  the 
researches  of  Mr.  Binney  in  Lancashire,  and  Mr. 
Richard  Brown  in  Nova  Scotia,  have  proved  it  to  be 
the  root  of  Sigillaria.  From  the  central  boss  great 


ORGANIC    REMAINS,    AND    ORIGIN   OF    COAL.  31 

cylindrical  arras  extended  in  every  direction,  branching 
oftentimes  into  two,  and  the  smaller  ones  into  two 
agfiin,  and  thus  occupying  an  area  of  many  yards. 
From  the  little  tubercles  regularly  arranged  on  the 
root  there  branched  off  innumerable  rootlets,  which  we 
now  find  squeezed  into  narrow  carbonised  ribands, 
confusedly  interlaced  with  the  clay,  and  stretching  for 
many  feet  away.  These  can  only  be  seen  fully  developed 
when  the  form  has  been  preserved  by  being  embedded 
in  a  quartzose  silt,  like  the  ganister  bed  of  some  of 
the  lower  coals,  when  it  becomes  evident  that  each  was 
attached  by  a  curious  rounded  base  resembling  a  ball 
and  socket  joint. 

LEPIDODENDRON.       The    trees    of   this    beautifully 
marked  family  also  attained  a  length  of  upwards  of  forty 


Fig.  3.  Lepitloilendron  obovatum.    (Half  natural  size.) 
(Le  Botwood  Colliery,  Shropshire.) 

feet,  and  are  referred  to  some  forty  species.  The  size 
is  the  more  extraordinary  when  we  find  that  they  are 
considered  by  botanists  to  belong  to  the  Lycopodiacece 


32 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINES. 


or  club-mosses,  the  largest  of  which  now  livmg  in 
tropical  climates  attains  a  height  of  only  3  feet. 

An  elegant  cone^  often  found  well  preserved  in  iron- 
stone among  the  coal  shales,  and  termed  Lepidostrobus, 
is  now  recognised  as  the  fruit  or  catkin  of  the 
Lepidodendron. 

Halonia,  a  stem  from  2  to  4  inches  thick,  looking  in 
outline  like  a  knotty  blackthorn,  is  reputed  by  Dawes 
and  others  to  be  the  root  of  Lepidodendron. 

CALAMITES.  Jointed  and  striated  stems  occurring 
abundantly  in  some  of  the  shales  have  been  compared 
by  the  unlearned  with  bamboo,  and  by  the  earlier  fossil 
botanists  with  Equiseta  or  "  horse 
tails,"  of  gigantic  dimensions. 
But  Brongniart  in  1849  adduced 
reasons  for  doubting  its  being  a 
cryptogamous  or  flowerless  plant, 
and  the  later  observations  of 
Binney,  Dawes,  and  Williamson 
associate  it  with  Calamodendron 
as  a  concentric  part  of  the  same 
trunk,  but  leave  its  affinities  in 
the  modern  world  more  uncertain 
than  ever. 

The  Calamites  have  also  been 
found  in  their  original  erect  posi- 
tion, the  root  end  terminating  in 
a  cone,  for  the  most  part  curved.* 
They  seem  to  have  formed  a 
dense  brake  of  perhaps  half  the 
height  of  the  Sigillaria. 

*  The  conical  end  used  to  be  taken  for  the  top  of  the  stem,  ana 
sometimes  by  collectors  for  a  fish's  snout. 


Fig.  4.  Calamites  decoratus. 

Derbyshire. 
(Half  natural  size.) 


ORGANIC   REMAINS,    AND    ORIGIN    OF    COAL. 


33 


ASTEROPHYLLITES.  Under  this  name  are  grouped 
several  kinds,  perhaps  genera  of  plant,  characterised 
by  the  graceful  arrangement  of  their  leaflets  in  the  form 


n 


L 

Fig.  5.    Asterophyllites  equisetiformis.    Forest  of  Dean.    (Natural  size.) 

of  a  star.  Some  of  the  botanical  authorities  incline  to 
consider  it  the  foliage  of  the  Calamodrendron,  whilst 
others  annex  it  to  the  Sphenophyllum,  or  wedge-leaf, 
and  make  the  entire  plant  aquatic. 

CONIFERS,  or  Firs.  Among  the  trunks  found 
petrified  in  the  sandstones,  many  exhibit  under  the 
microscope  a  structure  which  proves  them  to  belong  to 
the  araucarian  division  of  pines,  of  which  the  species 
brought  from  Norfolk  Island  is  a  well-known  modern 
representative.  The  coal-pines  were  peculiar  from 
containing  a  very  large  pith,  which,  found  separately 
as  a  ringed  cylinder,  used  to  be  described  as  an 
independent  plant,  under  the  name  Sternbergia. 
Angular,  nut-looking  fruits,  called  Trigonocarpum,  are 
referred  to  this  class  of  trees  ;  and  it  is  surmised  that 
a  roundish,  veined  leaf,  which  was  formerly  named 


34  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

CyclopteriS)  as  being  a  fern,  may  have  been  the  foliage 
of  some  of  their  species. 

Again,  in  the  films  of  soft  mineral  charcoal  or 
"  mother-of-coal,"  which,  of  the  thickness  of  a  knife- 
blade  to  a  quarter  of  an  inch  (rarely),  run  evenly  be- 
tween the  brighter  laminae  of  the  coal,  frequent  in 
some,  absent  in  other  seams,  the  angular  fragments 
of  woody-looking  substance,  all  mashed  up  together, 
present  in  many  instances  this  araucarian  structure. 
Other  portions  exhibit  a  bast  tissue,  or  elongated  cells, 
probably  from  wood  of  Sigillaria  and  Lepidodendron. 

Of  this  confessedly  highly-organised  class  of  trees, 
the  most  abundant  remains  are  referred  to  one  genus 
called  Dadoxylon. 

FEKNS  OB  FILICITES.  These  graceful  relics  of  a 
former  world  of  vegetation  adorn  the  shaly  roofs  of 
many  of  the  coal  seams,  sometimes  clearly  spread  with 
their  black  tracery  on  a  grey  ground,  a  true  specimen 
of  nature-printing;  at  others  tossed  and  tumbled  in 
wild  profusion  throughout  several  feet  in  thickness  of 
the  roof-stone.  A  careful  eye,  and  still  better  if 
aided  by  a  microscope,  may  often  see  their  traces  in  the 
coal  itself,  and  in  some  of  its  dull  unpromising  parts 
may  descry  innumerable  spiculae  or  hair-like  needles, 
which  Dr.  Dawson  refers  to  the  vascular  bundles  of 
decomposed  plants  of  this  tribe. 

Certain  of  the  botanists  have  named  and  described 
hundreds  of  species  ;  others,  more  cautious,  remind  us 
that  considerable  difference  of  appearance  may  be  seen 
on  the  several  fronds  of  one  plant,  or  even  on  the 
pinna  of  the  same  frond;  and  that  the  number  of 
species  may  thence  have  to  be  reduced. 

A  general  resemblance  to  ferns  of  the  present  day 


ORGANIC   REMAINS,   AND    ORIGIN   OF    COAL.  35 

must  not  be  confounded  with  identity  of  species  or 


Fig.  6.  Pecopteris  pteroides.    (Hulf  natural  size.)    (Forest  of  Dean.) 

even  genus.      It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  whole 
of  the  coal-measure  ferns 
are  utterly  extinct,  and 
their  place  in  nature  is 
supplied  by  fresh  races. 

PECOPTERIS  (adherent 
fern).  The  name  ALE- 
THOPTERIS  is  given  to 
those  species  in  which 
the  pinnules  are  long 
and  narrow.  The  leaflets 
adhere  by  their  base  to 
the  rachis  or  stem,  and 
are  traversed  by  a  strong 
mid-rib,  from  which  veins 
branch  off  almost  perpen- 
dicularly ;  some  of  them 
simple,  some  bifurcating, 
but  never  intersecting. 
Sometimes  found  with 
fruit  patches  (son)  in  the  back  of  the  fronds. 

D2 


'  Fig.  7,  Pecopf en's  (Alethopteris)  Searlii 
(Half  natural  size.) 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


NEUROPTERIS  (nerved  fern).  Leaves  more  or  less 
heart-shaped  and  entire,  not  adhering  by  their  base  or 
to  one  another ;  veins  very  fine,  dichotomous,  arched 
as  they  rise  obliquely  from  the  base  of  the  leaflet; 


Fig.  8.    Neuropteris  gigantea.    Cwm  Avon.    (Half  natural  size.) 

bears  a  general  resemblance  to  the  recent  Osmunda 
regaliSj  or  royal  fern.  The  leaflets  are  sometimes  so 
long  as  to  suggest  comparison  with  examples  of 
glossopteriS)  an  oolitic  species,  and  with  the  recent 
Hart's-tongue. 


Fig.  9.  Jsphenopteris  latifolia.    Felling  Colliery  Newcastle.    (Half  natural  size.) 

SPHENOPTERIS  (wedge-fern).     Very  variable  general 


ORGANIC   REMAINS,    AND    ORIGIN    OF    COAL.  37 

aspect;  leaflets  contracted  at  their  base,  lobed,  and  the 
lower  lobes  largest,  reminding  the  observer  of  our  recent 
Adiantum  ;  veins  on  the  leaflets  radiating  from  the  base. 

The  ODONTOPTERIS,  or, tooth-fern,  and  LONCHOPTERIS, 
or  spear-fern,  are  genera  which  occur  less  frequently 
than  the  above. 

Some  of  these  fronds  appear  to  have  belonged  to 
low  plants,  others  to  have  grown  on  large  and  lofty 
trees ;  and  certain  trunks,  called  Caulopteris  and 
PalceopteriS)  exhibiting  clear  and  frequent  scars  left 
after  the  fall  of  the  fronds/  are  supposed  to  have 
been  the  tree-ferns  of  the  carboniferous  period. 

Lastly  we  must  not  omit  to  mention  a  kind  of  plant- 
remains  which  have  engaged  the  attention  of  but  few, 
but  which  have  played  an  important  part  in  the 
making  up  of  certain  coals. 

These  are  broad,  parallel-veined,  elongated  leaves, 
referred  by  authors  to  very  different  plants.  The  most 
frequent,  which  was  described  by  Corda  as  Flabellaria, 
has  been  since  termed  Cordaites  (probably  identical 
with  Pycnophyllum,)  Bron.).  The  leaves  were  not 
attached  by  narrow  bases,  but  clasped  the  stem,  and 
were  deciduous.  The  vast  numbers  of  them,  layer 
upon  layer,  visible  in  certain  cases,  testify  to  their 
having  accumulated  in  thick  banks. 

No  single  circumstance  about  the  coal  vegetation  is 
more  remarkable  than  its  uniformity  over  a  large 
portion  of  the  world.  It  has  long  been  known  that  a 
great  part  of  the  plants  of  this  epoch  are  alike  all  over 
Europe,  and  even  North  America.  In  Australia  many 
of  them  occur,  and  at  Melville  Island,  in  lat.  76°,  and 
in  other  boreal  spots  described  by  Arctic  navigators, 
similar  genera  are  found. 


38  COAL   AND   eOAL-MINING. 

It  has  hence  been  argued  that  the  climate  of  the 
globe  was  at  that  period  more  equable  ;  and  advancing 
another  step  from  this  basis,  the  earlier  geologists 
supposed  that  it  was  owing  to  a  generally  diffused 
higher  temperature — an  intermediate  stage  between 
the  original  globe,  of  fused  matter,  and  our  own  times, 
of  a  cooler  crust.  But  more  accurate  investigations 
have  set  aside  this  hypothesis,  and  shown  that  the 
general  type  of  the  coal  flora  is  that  due  to  a  warm — 
not  hot — climate,  in  which  moisture  was  very  abundant. 
To  account  further  for  the  inordinately  luxuriant 
growth  of  the  plants  which  made  up  the  fossil  fuel, 
Brongniart  suggested  the  hypothesis  that  the  atmos- 
phere must  at  that  period  have  contained  a  much  larger 
percentage  of  carbonic  acid  (poison  to  animals,  but 
nutriment  to  plants)  than  it  does  now.  And  when  we 
consider  the  enormous  volume  of  carbon  in  the  coal  and 
carbonaceous  beds,  which  must  have  been  obtained  from 
carbonic  acid,  and  add  to  it  all  that  which  has  been 
locked  up  since  in  making  the  thousands  of  feet  thick 
of  limestone,  or  carbonate  of  lime,  we  certainly  have  a 
cause  which  must  have  played  its  part.  What  were  the 
animals  which  at  this  time  tenanted  the  globe,  is  an 
interesting  but  difficult  inquiry,  when  we  consider  the 
accidents  on  which  it  depends  that  the  remains  of  land 
animals  should  be  preserved  for  our  study.  The 
Archcegosaurus  was  the  first  coal  reptile  found  (in 
Bavaria,  1844),  one  probably  intermediate  between  the 
batrachians  and  the  saurians ;  but  the  last  few  years 
have  added  several  to  the  list;  one  of  them,  the 
Dendrerpeton  Acadianum,  having  been  curiously  found 
by  Sir  C.  Lyell  and  Dr.  Dawson  in  the  hollow  stump 
of  an  erect  Sigillaria. 

Quite    recently,    in    November,     1865,    Professor 


ORGANIC    REMAINS,   AND   ORIGIN   OF   COAL.  39 

Huxley  lias  been  able  to  determine,  in  a  collection  of 
specimens  obtained  from  the  Jarrow  Colliery,  Kilkenny, 
no  less  than  four,  if  not  five,  genera  of  Amphibian 
Labyrinthodont  reptiles. 

Among  the  other  vertebrate  animals  fishes  were 
common  enough,  their  teeth,  scales,  and  spines  being 
abundant  in  many  of  the  roof  shales.  Agassiz 
described  above  154  species  from  the  coal-measures, 
a  great  part  of  them  predaceous,  and  stated  to  be  more 
highly  orgaiised  than  any  living  fish. 

Of  the  Mdlusca  vast  quantities  are  found,  best  pre- 
served by  behg  imbedded,  petrified,  in  nodules  of  iron- 
stone, or  flattened  in  the  shales. 

In  association  with  the  lower  seams  of  coal,  in  most 
of  our  Britisi  fields,  shells  of  a  decidedly  marine 
character  occrr.  Sometimes  one  seam,  sometimes 
several,  will  exhibit  in  its  roof  of  black  shale,  and 
commonly  witlin  a  few  inches  of  thickness,  multitudes 
of  a  pecten  or  comb-shell  (Aviculo-pecten  papyraceus) , 
and  of  a  curld  chambered  shell,  somewhat  like  a 
nautilus  (Gonictites  Listeri),  with  rarer  examples  of 
Productus,  Ort/oceratiteSj  Lingula,  &c.  The  bivalve 
Antkracosia,  mtch  resembling  the  Unio,  or  Horse- 
mussel  of  our  fcsh  waters,  is  sometimes  found  in  the 
same  group  of  dmizens  of  the  sea. 

Throughout  allthe  middle  and  upper  measures,  the 
great  bulk  in  factof  the  coal-producing  strata,  Anthra- 
cosia  alone,  with  some  rare  exceptions,  out  of  all  the 
above,  continues  is  existence;  but  this  sometimes  in 
such  quantities  tht  entire  strata  ("  mussel-bands "), 
of  several  inches  thick,  are  made  up  of  them.  To 
these  may  be  addd.  Mr.  Salter's  genus  Anthracomya,  a 
mud-burrowing  sbll,  occurring  also  in  dense  beds  like 
those  of  the  modrn  mussel.  The  black  band  iron- 


40  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

stones   of   North   Staffordshire   are  literally  crowded 
with  them. 

And,  lastly,  through  the  whole  range  of  the  coal 
strata  there  may  be  noticed,  either  attached  to  other 
fossils  or  embedded  in  the  stone,  the  minute  spiral 
case  of  a  sea  annelid,  termed  Spirorbis  carbonarius,  and 
the  seed-like  valves  of  a  little  crustacean,  Cypris,  or 
Cythere.  The  tracks  of  large  worms  (probably  marine) 
occur  in  great  abundance  in  the  clay  ironscones  which 
so  often  diversify  the  coal  shales,  and  thelatter  some- 
times exhibit  the  remains  of  crickets  and  /)ther  insects. 

When  we  pass  downwards  to  the  grent  foundation 
stone  on  which  our  coalfields  rest,  and  yith  which  the 
lower   seams  of    Scotland  and  those   a    Kussia  are 
associated,  we  find,  in  the  carboniferoijs  limestone,  a 
series  of  strata  bearing  the  most  evident  traces   of 
marine  origin.     In  part,  nothing  but  lianks  of  corals 
and  encrinites ;  in  others,  filled  with  they  ell-preserved 
shells  of  T&rebratula,  Spirifer,  and  Profactus,  they  tell 
us  plainly  of  deposits  formed  in  a  sii  of  moderate 
depth;   and  since  the  thickness  of  tbse  beds  varies 
from  500  to  nearly  2,000  feet,  it  seen/s  probable  that 
the  floor  of  that  sea  must  have  been  more  and  more, 
though  not  uniformly,  depressed.     In  the  period  that 
succeeded — that    in  which    the    millltone    grit     was 
deposited — there  is   evidence  of  muci  disturbance  by 
sea  and  land ;  granite  and  other  rockabroken  into  bits, 
or  rolled  into  pebbles,  and  wafted  aid  dragged  about 
by  currents  and  eddies,   whilst  an  jccasional  bed   of 
quietly  settled  shale  reveals   the  shjlls  of  Goniatites, 
Bellerophon,  Lingula,  and  other  deizens  of  the  sea, 
who  had  found  a  lull,  either  in  pice  or  time,  amid 
the  turbulence  of  the  period.     Andthroughout  these 
strata  we  find  the  preparatory  symptjms,  as  it  were,  of 


ORGANIC   REMAINS,   AND   ORIGIN   OF    COAL.  41 

the  great  coal-making  epoch  that  was  approaching,  in 
stems  and  impressions  of  several  of  the  genera  of 
plants  that  were  soon  afterwards  so  multiplied. 

Some  years  ago  there  were  authors  of  weight  who 
inclined  to  the  opinion  that  coal  had  been  formed  by 
the  drifting  of  large  masses  of  vegetable  matter  into 
bays  or  estuaries,  and  they  pointed  to  the  "  rafts  "  of 
the  lower  Mississippi  as  examples  of  a  similar  process 
still  in  action.  But  since  due  attention  has  been  paid 
to  the  constant  presence  of  the  roots  in  the  floor  of  the 
seams,  to  the  upright  trunks — often  one  series  above 
another — and  to  the  high  state  of  preservation  of  the 
most  delicate  remains,  it  has  been  generally  agreed 
that  most  of  the  appearances  are  explained  by  assuming 
that  the  vegetation  grew  on  the  spot  where  we  now 
find  it.*  Some  writers  there  are  still  who  have  a 
hankering  after  the  old  aquatic  origin,  and,  supported 
by  the  evidence  of  fishes  and  marine  shells,  would 
assign  salt  water  as  a  habitat  for  some  of  the  coal 
plants.  But  with  others  the  doubtful  point  is  whether 
the  trees  and  undergrowth  flourished  on  dry  land  or 
swampy  sea  margins.  We  can  no  longer  doubt  that 
the  under-clay  was  a  true  soil,  in  which  the  great 
Sigillaroid  trees  were  fixed  by  their  tap-roots,  their 
spreading  radical  branches,  and  filamentous  rootlets. 
How  many  generations  of  these  trees  may  have  risen 
to  maturity  and  died  away  before  the  conditions  were 
favourable  to  their  being  preserved,  it  is  hard  to  sur- 
mise ;  but  at  length,  when  a  mingled  matting  of  vege- 

*  Franz  von  Beroldingen  appears  to  deserve  the  credit  of  first  sug- 
gesting the  view  that  the  coal-beds  are  the  peat-bogs  of  a  former  age, 
converted  first  into  brown  coal  and  afterwards  into  stone  coal. 
(Beobachtungen,  &c.,  die  Mineralogie  betreffend,  1778.)  In  this 
theory  he  was  supported  by  De  Luc,  and  after  many  years  by 
Schlotheim,  Noggerath,  and  Lindley  and  Hutton. 


42  COAL  AND   COAL-MINING. 

table  matter,  stems,  roots,  leaves,  &c.,  had  accumulated, 
like  the  pulpy  mass  of  a  modern  peat-bog,  the  surface 
of  the  area  was,  with  much  uniformity,  depressed. 
Then  would  flow  back  the  waters,  fresh  or  salt,  over 
their  ancient  domain,  and,  according  to  the  sediment 
they  were  able  to  carry,  would  deposit  sand  or  mud  to 
be  one  day  known  as  the  rock— or  the  shale-roof.  The 
Mollusea  above  enumerated  then  burrowed  in  the  soft 
ooze,  close  upon  the  top  of  the  buried  vegetation ;  in 
many  cases  the  stumps  of  the  old  forest  remained 
standing,  whilst  mud  or  silt  was  deposited  around 
them,  until  the  central  portion  of  the  trunk  would  rot 
away,  serve  for  a  time  as  an  asylum  for  some  of  the 
lizards  or  land-shells  of  the  period,  and  then  get  filled 
in  with  petrifying  matter.  As  the  water  deepened  it 
was  haunted  by  fish  of  many  kinds,  whose  exuviae  fell 
to  the  bottom  and  were  there  buried  up,  and  thus  bed 
after  bed  of  sediment  accumulated,  sometimes  to  the 
depth  of  a  few  feet,  sometimes  to  hundreds  of  yards — 
if  the  continuous  depression  of  the  land  was  maintained 
— until  circumstances  favoured  again  the  formation  of 
a  proper  soil  (the  under-clay),  and  of  a  growth  of  trees 
and  plants,  when  we  should  have  a  recurrence  of  the 
same  phenomena. 

An  enormous  bulk  of  vegetable  matter  would  be 
,  needed  thus  to  form  one  of  our  thicker  seams  of  coals  ; 
but  we  have  seen  how  the  latter  are  generally  divisible 
into  several  beds,  and  these  again  into  thin  laminae, 
whilst  we  know  that  peat -bogs  of  the  present  day, 
without  the  special  advantages  of  the  coal  jungle,  attain 
depths  of  30  or  40  feet.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
eight  feet  thick  of  packed  woody  substance  would  be 
needed  to  make  one  foot  of  coal ;  but  we  may  take  it 
for  granted  that  such  an  amount  would  represent  only 


ORGANIC   REMAINS,    AND   ORIGIN   OF    COAL.  43 

a  fraction  of  the  total  amount  of  vegetation  that 
flourished  at  the  time,  since  much  of  it  must  doubtless 
have  escaped  from  the  preservative  process  of  interment. 
We  cannot  afford  space  to  dwell  on  the  chemical 
argument  by  which  this  derivation  of  the  different  kinds 
of  coal  is  shown  to  be  probable;  but  the  following 
table,  borrowed  from  Dr.  Percy's  "  Metallurgy, "  sup- 
plies at  a  glance  an  illustration  of  the  successive  steps 
in  the  change  from  woody  tissue  to  anthracite.  The 
porportions  of  carbon  in  each  substance  being  taken  at 
the  constant  amount  of  100,  the  hydrogen  and  oxygen 
will  be  found  to  have  been  more  and  more  eliminated. 

Carbon.  Hydrogen.  Oxygen. 

1.  Wood  (mean  of  26  analyses)     .     .  100  12-18  83-07 

2.  Peat 100  9-85  55-67 

3.  Lignite  (average  of  15  varieties)   .  100  8*37  42-42 

4.  Ten-yard  coal,  South  Staffordshire  100  6-12  21.25 

5.  Steam  coal  from  the  Tyne   .     .     .100  5*91  18*32 

6.  Pentrefelin  coal,  South  Wales  .     .  100  475  5-28 

7.  Anthracite,  Pennsylvania    .     .     .100  2*84  174 

When  the  buried  forest  had  once  been  fairly  covered 
up  by  hundreds,  and  as  the  land  sank,  by  thousands  of 
feet  of  rock,  we  may  conceive  it  subjected  to  those 
conditions  of  pressure,  temperature,  and  moisture, 
which  were  needed  to  change  it  into  that  condensed 
form  of  fuel  now  so  necessary  to  mankind. 

And  when  at  length,  after  ages  of  due  preparation, 
portions  of  the  coal  formation  were  upheaved  into  the 
islands  and  continents,  the  seams  of  coal  were  brought 
into  a  position  to  be  accessible  to  man,  and  the  forces 
of  the  sunbeams,  which  fell  upon  the  jungles  of  the 
primeval  world,  are  again  unlocked  and  made  subser- 
vient to  our  use,  when  we  now  decompose  by  burning 
those  compounds  which  had  been  called  into  existence 
by  the  solar  light  and  heat. 


44  COAL  AND   COAL-MINING. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

COALFIELDS   OF  THE   NOKTH. 

IN  order  to  enable  us  to  form  a  due  estimate  of  the 
coal  resources  of  the  various  countries,  we  must  glance 
at  the  extent  and  character  of  the  coal-measures  as 
they  are  developed  in  the  different  districts ;  and  since 
the  history  and  commercial  importance  of  the  coalfield 
of  Newcastle  give  it  the  pre-eminence,  we  may  conve- 
niently start  from  that  focus  of  activity. 

It  must  be  premised  that  the  limits  of  a  coalfield 
are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  area  coloured  as 
"  coal-measures  "  in  a  geological  map;  for  although 
in  some  regions  (as  in  South  Wales)  it  is  one  and  the 
same  thing,  the  coal-seams  are  often  well  known  and 
largely  worked  beneath  other  newer  formations,  which 
in  a  map  are  represented  by  their  proper  colour, 
whether  they  overlie  coal-measures  or  any  other  older 
rocks.  We  shall,  therefore,  in  many  instances  have  to 
speak  of  a  coalfield  as  such,  where  it  signifies  the 
extent  of  proved  coal-producing  ground,  whatever  the 
mere  covering  may  be  composed  of. 

On  examination  of  a  geological  map  it  will  be  seen 
that,  coming  southward  from  the  Durham  coalfield  on 
one  side  of  the  central  chain  of  North  English  hill 
country,  and  from  that  of  Cumberland  on  the  other,  a 
large  interval  separates  them  from  those  of  Yorkshire 
and  Lancashire  respectively.  It  will  be  seen,  too,  that 
there  are  certain  features  of  connection  in  each  case 
between  the  East  and  the  West,  which  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
establish  between  North  and  South,  and  we  may  there- 
fore take  one  division  for  this  chapter  as  including  the 


COALFIELDS   OF   THE   NORTH.  45 

coal  regions  north  of  a  line  drawn  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Tees  westward  through  Kendal  and  the  south  side 
of  the  Lake  country. 

About  equidistant  from  the  Irish  Sea  on  the  west 
and  the  North  Sea  on  the  east  rises  the  broad  backbone 
of  the  hill  country,  composed  of  the  carboniferous  lime- 
stone with  all  its  numerous  subdivisions  so  carefully 
studied  by  the  lead-miners  of  those  breezy  fells,  and 
bearing  on  its  culminating  points,  and  on  the  high 
ground  extending  for  many  miles  breadth  on  the  east, 
a  capping  of  millstone-grit.  On  the  west  side,  or 
towards  Penrith,  this  main  chain  has  been  greatly 
disturbed  and  abruptly  broken  at  an  early  geological 
period,  whilst  on  the  other  side  the  land  slopes  more 
uniformly  from  the  high  grouncl.  The  strata  here, 
inclining  gently  eastward,  partake  of  the  same  regula- 
rity, and  as  we  proceed  towards  the  coast,  succeed  in 
ever  ascending  order  till  the  various  coal-seams  "  put 
in,"  one  after  the  other,  and  are  at  length  similarly 
capped  by  the  magnesian  limestone,  and  soon  after- 
wards— not  cut  off,  but  surmounted — by  the  sea.  The 
field  of  the  Blythe,  Tyne,  and  Wear,  so-called  after 
its  rivers,  extends  from  the  Coquet  on  the  north  to  near 
the  Tees  on  the  south,  for  about  50  miles  in  length, 
with  a  breadth  of  about  20  miles  for  a  great  part  of  the 
way,  till  it  narrows  to  a  point  when  it  passes  north  of 
the  Blythe,  an  area  in  all  of  705  miles.  For  some 
miles  in  breadth  along  the  western  side,  only  a  few  of 
the  lower  seams  are  worked;  then,  in  a  line  ranging 
through  Newcastle  and  Durham,  we  get  the  full  num- 
ber of  the  workable  seams;  and  again,  following  a 
sinuous  course  from  Tynemouth  past  Houghton-le- 
Spring  to  near  Bishop  Auckland,  the  overlying 


46  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

permian  formation  succeeds,  represented  by  a  generally 
bold  outline  of  magnesian  limestone  resting  on  the 
irregular  lower  red  sand,  which,  from  its  water-bearing 
and  loose  properties,  presents  great  difficulties  to  the 
sinking  of  shafts  eastward  of  this  line. 

In  former  days  this  upper  was  confounded  with  the 
lower  (carboniferous)  limestone,  and  it  was  supposed 
that  a  limit  was  thus  formed  to  the  coalfield  on  either 
side.  It  was,  therefore,  a  bold  step,  when  the  Messrs. 
Pemberton,  relying  on  true  geological  reasoning,  de- 
termined to  pierce  downward  from  the  coast  near  Sun- 
derland,  and  search  for  the  hidden  coal-measures  below. 
Their  famous  Monkwearmouth  pit  was  commenced  in 
1826,  and  had  to  pass  through  330  feet  of  this  newer 
formation,  towards  the  bottom  of  which  no  less  than 
3,000  gallons  of  water  per  minute  had  to  be  raised  by 
pumping  power,  until  it  was  successfully  tubbed  off. 
At  285  fathoms  depth  they  cut  the  Hutton  seam, 
having  previously  intersected  the  Maudlin  or  Bensham 
seam  20  fathoms  higher.  And  these  results  appear  to 
establish  a  curious  point  in  the  configuration  of  the 
coalfield.  The  seams  which  thus  lie  nearly  1,700  feet 
below  the  sea  at  Sunderland  occur  at  a  less  depth  as 
they  pass  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  whilst  west- 
ward they  rise  to  their  outcrop  at  Howes  Gill — an 
elevation  of  740  feet  above  the  sea,  giving  a  difference 
in  level  of  2,440  feet.  It  would  appear,  then,  that  this 
is  the  deepest  part,  or  a  sort  of  transverse  trough  in 
the  stratification  ;  but  as  the  measures  have  generally 
a  gentle  inclination  eastward,  where  they  have  been 
sunk  to  along  the  coast,  it  yet  remains  to  be  proved 
whether  the  deeper  part  of  the  entire  basin  does  not  lie 
further  seaward,  and  the  probability  remains  of  a  large 


COALFIELDS   OF    THE   NORTH.  47 

area  of  this  productive  coalfield  extending  beneath  the 
German  Ocean.  At  these  deep  pits,  and  those  of 
Ryhope  and  Seaham,  also  sunk  within  the  last  few 
years  at  a  small  distance  from  the  coast  line,  the 
deeper  seams  of  the  field  have  not  yet  been  reached ; 
but  from  sections  obtained  in  the  shallower  pits  in  the 
west,  the  succession  is  perfectly  well  known. 

The  total  thickness  of  the  measures  from  the  lowest 
known  seam  upwards  may  be  taken  at  little  more 
than  2,000  feet.  The  upper  half  contains  only  a  few 
unworkable  beds,  the  lower  half  all  the  valuable  seams. 
In  this  field,  as  in  all  others,  the  thickness  and  cha- 
racter of  a  particular  band  of  coal  will  be  found  to 
vary,  and  that  to  such  an  extent  as  to  occasion  much 
difficulty  in  identifying  the  seams  of  distant  pits.  A 
coal  which  is  suitable  for  steam  purposes  in  one  part 
of  the  area,  will  be  more  fitted  for  household  use  in 
another ;  and  that  which  is  the  mainstay  of  a  colliery 
in  one  locality  may  be  barely  traceable  in  another. 

The  chiefly  important  seams  are  the  following  : — 

Feet.  Inches. 

Monkton  and  Hebburn  Fell  seam 2  10 

High  main 6         0 

Metal  coal 3         0 

Yard  coal  (Main  coal  of  Hetton,  6  feet)     ...  3  8 
Bensham  or  Maudlin,  4  feet  8  inches  at  Monk- 

wearmouth 6  0 

Six-quarter 2  6 

Five-quarter  (Low  main  at  Monkwearmouth)    .  4        1 

Low  main  (Hutton  seam  4  feet  on  the  Wear)    .  6  0 

Crow  coal,  generally  thin,  at  Ryton     ....  2  3 

Five-quarter 3  8 

Ruler 1  6 

Townleymain 3  10 

Stone  coal,  or  five-quarter  ) 3  9 

}  Busty  Bank. 

Six-quarter  ) 3  4 

Three-quarter 2  6 

Brockwell  .  .32 


48  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

The  average  number  of  seams  found  to  be  workable 
in  any  one  section  may,  I  believe,  fairly  be  taken  as 
twelve,  with,  about  50  feet  of  coal  in  the  aggregate. 

Great  advantages  exist  in  the  district :  first,  in  the 
general  regularity  of  the  measures,  dipping  at  a  very 
moderate  angle %  commonly  about  1  in  20 ;  the  con- 
venient thickness  of  the  seams,  from  3  to  6  feet ;  the 
excellent  qualities  of  the  coals,  and  the  usual  goodness 
of  the  roof,  which  allows  of  wide  working  places  and 
roads,  with  a  very  small  expenditure  of  timber.  The 
difficulties  are  the  considerable  depths  of  the  sinkings 
in  the  newer  pits,  the  watery  strata  to  be  pierced,  and 
the  large  amount  of  fire-damp  giving  off  by  many  of 
the  seams. 

Faults  or  slip-dykes  are  few  and  far  between  as 
compared  with  most  coalfields,  and  the  whin  or  basaltic 
dykes,  which  traverse  the  district  in  an  -east-south-east 
direction — although  they  injure  the  coal  on  both  sides 
of  them  to  a  distance  of  some  yards — are  not  found  to 
derange  and  interfere  with  them  as  they  do  in  Scotland 
and  South  Staffordshire.  Among  the  ordinary  faults, 
the  most  remarkable  is  the  great  90  fathom  dyke, 
which — appearing  on  the  coast  near  Cullercoats,  where 
it  displaces  the  strata  to  that  amount — ranges  past 
Gosforth  to  Blaydon,  and  then  entering  on  the  more 
hilly  ground,  may  be  traced  westward  through  the 
limestone  range  to  the  new  red  sandstone  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Carlisle.  Along  this  part  of  its  course  the 
throw,  though  variable,  is  sufficient  to  inlay,  as  it  were, 
on  its  north  side  a  long  strip  of  coal  measures,  and 
thus  to  give  rise  to  the  collieries  of  Stublick,  Midg- 
holm,  Tyndal  Fell,  Ac. 

The  variations  in  quality  of  the  seams  as  they  range 


COALFIELDS    OF    THE    NORTH.  49 

through  this  extensive  field  give  rise  to  different  com- 
mercial applications.  The  best  "  household  coal/' 
commonly  called  after  the  well-known  Wallsend  pits, 
extends  from  the  Tyne  to  the  Wear,  and  from  the  last- 
named  river  to  Castle  Eden,  and  occupies  another  area 
about  Bishop  Auckland.  The  denser  white-ash  steam 
coal  characterises  the  district  beginning  some  five 
miles  north  of  the  Tyne ;  whilst  the  tender  coals,  which 
afford  an  admirable  coke,  are  largely  worked  all  along 
the  line  of  the  outcrops  on  the  west,  from  Wylam  and 
Ryton  down  to  the  outskirts  of  Raby  Park. 

The  total  production  of  the  Durham  and  Northum- 
berland field,  which,  in  1854,  was  15,420,615  tons,  is 
for  the  year  1864  no  less  than  23,284,367  tons.  This 
enormous  increase  is  in  great  part  due  to  the  rapid  de- 
velopment of  the  Cleveland  iron  district,  in  North 
Yorkshire.  The  iron  furnaces  in  the  three  districts 
fed  with  the  coal  from  this  field  were,  in  1854,  as 
many  as  58;  in  1865  they  were  augmented  to  105 
actually  in  blast ;  and  as  huge  quantities  of  Durham 
coke  are  now  conveyed  to  the  western  coast  for  the 
smelting  of  the  hematite  ores,  the  total  quantity  of 
coal  thus  consumed  is  probably  much  more  than 
doubled  in  one  decennium. 

CUMBERLAND  COALFIELD. — In  the  mountain  lime- 
stone district  about  Alston,  two  or  three  small  seams 
of  anthracite  (crow  coal),  mostly  of  but  a  few  inches 
thick,  have  been  worked  for  lime-burning,  &c.,  yet  are 
of  little  commercial  importance.  But  a  remarkable 
change  occurs  on  their  passing  the  great  dyke,  or  fault, 
above  described ;  for  on  the  line  of  the  Newcastle  and 
Carlisle  railway  one  of  them  has  been  worked  at 
Blenkinsop,  of  good  bituminous  character,  and  no  less 

E 


50  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

than  6  feet  thick,  surmounted  by  a  limestone  roof.  As 
these  seams  pass  northward  they  increase  in  number 
and  importance,  till  in  the  farther  parts  of  Northum- 
berland they  are  described  by  Mr.  Boyd  as  being  twelve 
in  number,  from  2  to  4  feet  each  ;  and  thus  it  is  that 
they  form  an  introduction  to  the  series  of  limestone 
coals  so  valuable  in  Scotland.* 

On  the  western  side  of  the  great  limestone  chain 
slight  indications  of  much-disturbed  coal-seams  occur 
near  the  base  of  the  great  Cross  Fell  escarpment ;  but 
the  important  part  of  the  Cumberland  coalfield  only 
appears  distinctly  on  emerging  from  beneath  the  red 
sandstone  cover,  south  of  Wigton,  whence  it  laps  round 
the  older  rocks  of  the  Lake  District,  by  Maryport, 
Workington,  and  Whitehaven,  to  its  termination,  near 
St.  Bees. 

The  total  thickness  of  the  measures,  as  well  as  the 
number  of  seams,  is  notably  less  than  in  the  Durham 
field,  whilst  its  length  is  under  30  miles,  and  its  proved 
breadth  about  6  miles.  The  quality  is  also  inferior  for 
household  coal,  and  very  much  so  for  coking.  Cer- 
tain of  the  seams  are,  however,  remarkable  for  thick- 
ness and  regularity,  as  well  as  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances under  which  they  have  been  worked.  These  are 
best  exhibited  at  Whitehaven,  where  along  a  coast  line 
of  nearly  2  miles  extensive  operations  have  been  carried 
on  by  Lord  Lonsdale  to  the  distance  of  1J  mile  under 
the  sea.  The  strata  here  dip  slightly  seaward,  but  are 
intercepted  by  a  numerous  succession  of  faults  which 
have  rendered  their  exploration  unusually  difficult  and 
expensive.  Fortunately,  the  dislocations  have  been  of 
such  a  character  as  to  allow  of  this  large  area  being 

*  See  Mr.  Boyd's  paper  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Institute  of 
Mining  Engineers. 


COALFIELDS   OF   THE    NORTH.  51 

mainly  worked  by  horizontal  roads  driven  off  from  the 
William,  Wellington,  Croft,  and  Salton  pits,  at  depths 
of  from  100  to  150  fathoms.  The  principal  seams 
(omitting  two  or  three  thin  beds  above  and  below) 
are  as  follows  : — 

Bannock  band,  6  ft.  4  ins.  to  10  ft.  11  ins.,  including  14  ins.  to 

3  ft.  6  ins.  of  "metal"  partings. 
Strata  20  fins. 
Main  band,  9  ft.  to  1 1  ft.  9  ins.,  with  occasional  partings  of  2  ins. 

to  1  ft.  3  ins. 
Strata  40  fms. 
Six-quarter  band,  4  ft. 

In  the  year  1765,  M.  Jars  states  that  operations  had 
already  been  extended  to  the  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  under  the  sea ;  that  three  seams  were  in  work  : 
an  upper,  rather  stony,  5  feet  coal,  used  for  salt-mak- 
ing; the  second,  75  fathoms  deeper,  the  Bannock  band; 
and  the  main  band  of  10  feet  thick.  Wooden  rails 
were  in  use,  and  the  drainage  was  effected  by  four  fire- 
engines,  two  of  which  stood  on  the  sea-shore.  Fire- 
damp appears  to  have  been  very  troublesome,  and  it  is 
a  remarkable  fact  that  the  manager  of  the  mine  had 
at  that  early  date  proposed  to  the  authorities  of  White- 
haven  to  lead  pipes  through  all  the  streets  of  the  town 
to  light  them  at  night  with  the  natural  gas. 

At  Workington  the  seams  were  also  wrought  be- 
neath the  sea,  but  as  they  rose  towards  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  they  were  followed  up  too  far,  and  as  due  pre- 
caution was  strangely  disregarded,  the  sea  burst  in  in 
1837,  and  the  lamentable  result  was  the  loss  of  thirty- 
six  human  lives,  and  the  entire  destruction  of  the 
colliery.  The  same  seams  are  extensively  worked  on 
their  rise  at  the  Clifton  and  other  collieries  in  the 
valley  of  the  Derwent,  and  again  towards  Maryport 
and  Wig  ton. 

E2 


52  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

The  total  production  of  this  county  has  increased 
from  887,000  tons  in  1854  to  1,380,795  tons  in  1864. 

COALFIELDS  OF  SCOTLAND. — In  tracing  northwards  the 
great  calcareous  mass  which  forms  the  mountain  lime- 
stone of  Derbyshire  and  Yorkshire,  we  have  seen  above 
that  when  it  enters  Cumberland  and  Northumberland 
it  has  already  greatly  changed  its  character.  Divisional 
strata  of  shale  (plate]  and  sandstone  (hazel)  separate 
the  bands  of  limestone,  and  coal  seams  make  their 
appearance,  which,  beyond  the  great  90-fathom  dyke, 
attain  considerable  technical  importance.  And  when 
at  length  we  cross  the  border,  and  enter  upon  the 
Scottish  area,  we  find  this  formation — lapping  round 
the  great  upheaved  districts  of  older  rocks  ranging 
from  Kirkcudbrightshire  to  Berwick — to  contain  a 
valuable  and  largely-worked  series  of  coal-seams. 

The  range  of  the  carboniferous  formation  in  Scotland 
extends  from  the  coast  of  Ayr  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Frith  of  Forth,  and  over  an  irregular  width  of  from 
20  to  30  miles ;  but  as  regards  the  workable  portions 
it  is  broken  up  into  several  distinct  fields,  partly  by 
the  uprising  of  the  lower  coalless  strata,  and  partly  by 
the  interference  of  vast  masses  of  igneous  or  trap  rocks 
(the  whin  of  north  England),  sometimes  bedded,  and 
at  others  injected  as  dykes. 

The  full  thickness  of  the  coal-bearing  strata  is  well 
shown  in  the  coalfield  of  Midlothian,  east  of  Edinburgh, 
where  a  district  of  about  9  miles  long  by  2  or  3  miles 
wide,  is  occupied  by  "measures"  perfectly  analogous 
in  character  and  contents  to  the  English  coalfields.* 

*  See  Mr.  Millies'  account  of  this  coalfield  in  the  Trans.  Roy.  Soc. 
Ed.,  and  Mr.  HowelTs  description  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  1861. 


COALFIELDS   OF   THE'  NORTH.  53 

In  a  total  amount  of  about  1,200  feet,  including  a 
middle  band  of  200  feet  of  unproductive  rock,  are 
developed  some  twelve  seams,  mostly  from  2  to  5  feet 
thick,  although  one  of  them,  the  "great  seam/'  attains 
a  thickness  of  8  to  10  feet. 

Below  these  comes  the  millstone  grit,  of  340  feet 
thick,  and  then  in  descending  order  the  carboniferous 
limestone,  with  a  total  thickness  of  1,590  feet,  but 
containing,  along  with  only  some  40  feet  of  limestone 
in  many  thin  bands,  a  series  of  about  seventeen  beds 
of  coal  of  from  2  to  5  feet  each  (Howell). 

The  lower  limestone  is  without  coal. 

Mr.  Matthias  Dunn,  writing  in  1830,  gave  an  in- 
teresting description  of  the  working  of  the  outcrop  or 
edge  coals,  which,  in  a  measured  section  at  Niddrie 
Colliery,  he  states  to  be  twenty-four  in  number,  work- 
able seams,  with  a  total  thickness  of  95  feet  of  coal  in 
4,344  feet  of  measures,  included  between  the  "  gratna- 
cham  "  or  "  diamond  "  above,  and  the  "  north  greem  " 
seam  below,  which  rests  nearly  upon  the  thick  encrinital 
limestone. 

The  Fifeshire  coalfield,  as  described  by  Mr.  Landale, 
presents  a  valuable  array  of  seams,  one  of  which — the 
Dysart  main  seam — attains  the  unusual  thickness  of 
21  feet;  but  this  region  is  much  dislocated  by  faults 
and  interfered  with  by  igneous  rocks. 

Passing  westward  through  Clackmannan,  Stirling, 
and  Linlithgowshire,  we  come  to  the  important  fields 
of  Lanarkshire  and  Ayrshire,  where  the  chief  features 
are  the  admirable  gas  or  parrot  coals,  the  moderately- 
thick  splint  coals,  used  for  iron-smelting,  and  the  black 
bands,  or  beds  of  carbonaceous  ironstone,  which  have 
for  many  years  been  the  mainstay  of  the  surprising 


54  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

production  of  Scotch  pig-iron.  Mr.  Ralph  Moore,  adopt- 
ing a  similar  three-fold  division  to  that  above  cited, 
states  the  general  character  of  the  section  to  be — 

1.  The  true  coal-measures,  840  feet,  from  the  upper 
4-foot  coal  down  to  the  slaty-band  ironstone,  in- 
cluding ten  seams  of  2  to  5  (and  in  one  case  8)  feet 
in  thickness. 

2.  The  millstone  grit,  960  feet. 

3.  The  limestone  series,  2,200  feet,  with  three  beds 
of  black-band  ironstone,  and  several  seams  of  good 
coal. 

The  importance  of  the  coalfields  of  Scotland  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  in  1854  the  production  of 
coal  was  7,448,000  tons,  from  367  collieries  ;  in  1864, 
12,400,000,  from  497  collieries. 


CHAPTER  V. 

COALFIELDS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND. 

IF  the  reader  will  take  in  hand  a  geological  map  of 
England,*  and  fix  upon  the  curious  rugged  hill  of 
Mow-Cop,  near  Congleton,  as  his -centre,  he  may  draw 
a  circle  with  a  radius  of  60  miles,  which  will  embrace 
sixteen  patches  of  coal-measures,  being  fields  and 
basins  more  or  less  separated  from  one  another.  Geo- 

*  It  has  been  thought  unnecessary  to  insert  a  map  in  this  little 
volume,  when  so  many  good  geological  maps  on  a  useful  scale  are 
before  the  public.  As  a  series  arranged  according  to  increasing  size, 
may  be  recommended  Sir  Rod.  Murchison's  little  map  prepared  for 
the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge ;  Prof.  Ramsay's 
England  and  Wales  ;  Knipe's  British  Isles ;  and  Greenough'a  large 
map,  edited  by  the  Geological  Society. 


COALFIELDS   OF    CENTRAL   ENGLAND.  55 

logically,  we  have  very  good  reasons  for  assigning  a 
common  origin  to  the  whole  of  them,  and  considering 
them  to  be  the  separately  visible  portions  of  one  vast 
deposit,  which,  in  the  course  of  ages,  has  variously  been 
depressed  and  covered  up  by  newer  strata,  then  up- 
raised and  denuded  in  part,  so  that — after  the  fashion 
of  Virgil's  famous  oak-tree — whilst  the  higher  portions 
may  have  stood  8,000  feet  above  the  crests  of  the  Peak 
of  Derbyshire,  the  lower  beds  approximate  to  Tartarus 
by  dipping  down  from  off  the  Buxton  moorlands  to 
a  depth  of  some  12,000  feet  beneath  the  plains  of 
Cheshire.  And  the  inductions  of  geology  in  this  respect 
will  at  no  distant  day  be  required  to  solve  a  question 
of  national  moment — the  continuity  and  position  of 
the  coal-measures  between  these  apparently  disjointed 
fragments. 

YORKSHIRE  AND  DERBYSHIRE. — From  Leeds  to  Not- 
tingham there  extends  an  unbroken  range  of  coalfield, 
65  miles  long  by  from  8  to  20  miles  wide,  inclining  on 
the  whole  gently  to  the  east,  where  it  is  covered  in' 
succession  by  the  lower  red  sand,  the  magnesian  lime- 
stone, and  the  new  red  sandstone.  Whilst,  therefore, 
bounded  on  the  west  by  the  outcrop  of  the  beds,  it  is 
on  the  east  only  overlaid  by  newer  formations,  and  in 
all  probability  extends  far  beneath  them. 

The  thickness  of  the  measures  where  fully  developed 
(which  is  not  the  case  until  some  miles  away  from  the 
outcrop)  is  about  3,000  feet,  out  of  which  the  lower 
several  hundred  feet  are  chiefly  noticeable  for  the  occur- 
rence of  flagstones,  and  of  coals  with  ganister  floor, 
whilst  the  shales  contain  the  marine  shells,  already 
enumerated  at  p.  39.  The  chief  seams  of  coal  and 
ironstone  are  found  in  greater  number  towards  the 


56  COAL    AND   COAL-MINING. 

bottom  than  the  top  of  the  measures,  and  the  former 
may  be  taken  on  the  average  at  sixteen  in  number, 
with  45  feet  total  thiekness  of  coal.  The  most  remark- 
able of  the  seams  is  the  "  top-hard,"  which,  in  Derby- 
shire, is  5  to  6  feet,  but  increases  on  passing  into 
Yorkshire,  till  it  becomes  the  "  Barnsley  thick  bed," 
of  9  feet.  Another  seam,  now  well  known  in  the 
London  market,  is  the  "  Clod  "  or  "  Black  Shale"  of 
Derbyshire,  the  "  Silkstone"  of  South  Yorkshire;  and 
one  of  the  purest  house  coals  ever  seen  is  the  "  Kil- 
burn  coal,"  a  bed  only  developed  in  the  south  of 
Derbyshire. 

In  these  counties,  then,  with  the  adjoining  Notting- 
hamshire, we  have  the  largest  continuous  coalfield  in 
England ;  for  we  may  estimate  that  it  occupies  about 
800  square  miles.  But  one  of  its  most  welcome  fea- 
tures is  its  prolongation  eastward,  first  proved  on  the 
large  scale  by  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  spirited  sinking 
at  Shireoak,  where — commencing  in  the  red  sandstones 
at  the  distance  of  five  miles  from  the  visible  coalfield, 
and  cutting  the  top-hard  coal  at  510  yards  deep — it  is 
not  only  shown  that  all  the  measures  are  in  their  proper 
place,  but  that  they  may  be  expected  to  lie  at  moderate 
depth  and  an  easy  inclination.  It  may  be  roundly  said 
that  this  success  assures  us  of  half  as  much  again  to  be 
added  to  the  resources  of  the  coalfield,  and  a  speculative 
mind  will  reckon  on  a  still  larger  augmentation. 

LANCASHIRE. — More  irregular  in  form,  and  much 
intersected  by  great  faults  which  dislocate  the  strata 
to  the  amount  of  hundreds  of  yards,  this  coalfield  is 
one  of  our  noblest.  Crossing  to  the  westward  the 
ridge  of  lower  rocks  which  separate  it  from  Yorkshire, 
a  watchful  eye  will  recognise  the  re-entry  into  the 


COALFIELDS   OF    CENTRAL   ENGLAND.  57 

ground  of  the  various  seams  which  had  been  seen  to 
pass  out  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  hills.  Especially 
is  this  to  be  noted  with  the  Ganister  coals,  and  the 
peculiar  fossils  in  their  roofs,  and  with  the  Arley  mine 
or  seam,  which  occupies  the  place  of  the  Black  Shale 
or  Silkstone. 

As  a  general  feature,  although  much  interfered  with 
by  the  great  dislocations,  the  analogous  arrangement 
to  that  of  Yorkshire  is  observable,  viz.,  that  the  seams 
incline  off  from  the  high  country  of  the  moorlands, 
and  are  succeeded,  after  occupying  a  variable  breadth 
of  surface,  by  the  newer  beds  of  the  •  Permian  and 
Trias  formations.  But  the  total  thickness  of  carboni- 
ferous strata,  as  well  as  the  number  of  coals,  is  much 
greater  than  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  chain  of  hills. 

Mr.  Binney,  the  assiduous  explorer  of  this  field,  has 
long  since  found  it  convenient  to  divide  its  thickness 
of  above  7,000  feet  into  three  portions,  as  follows  : — 

1.  Upper  coalfield,  including  the  peculiar  Ardwick 
limestones,  with  numerous  fish-remains,  and  seve- 
ral thin  beds  of  coals. 

2.  Middle  coalfield,  3,500  feet,    containing  all  the 
more  important  seams  from  the  Worsley  four  feet 
downwards. 

3.  Lower  coalfield,  or  Ganister  series. 

The  chief  centres  of  activity  are  St.  Helens,  Wigan, 
Chorley,  Bolton,  Manchester,  and  the  outlying  tract  of 
Burnley.  The  seams  are  generally  from  three  to  six 
feet  thick;  one  of  the  most  noted  is  the  excellent 
Cannel  of  Wigan,  three  feet,  sometimes  occurring  in 
close  proximity  to  the  "King-coal;"  and  here,  as  at 
Pendleton,  Patricroft,  &c.,  near  Manchester,  very 


58  COAL   AND  COAL-MINING. 

extensive  collieries  are  worked  at  depths  of  from  400 
to  600  yards.  The  total  number  of  seams  above  two 
feet  in  thickness  is  on  the  average  16  to  20,  with  about 
70  feet  of  coal  in  the  aggregate,  whilst  the  entire  area 
is  given  by  Mr.  Hull,  who  has  examined  it  for  the 
Geological  Survey,  as  being  217  square  miles. 

CHESHIRE. — The  Lancashire  is  continuous  on  the 
south  and  east  with  the  Cheshire  coalfield,  so  that  a 
narrow  strip  belonging  to  this  latter  county  exhibits  a 
very  similar  succession  of  strata.  A  special  interest 
lias  been  given  to  its  mining  by  the  fine  shaft  (the 
deepest  in  England)  lately  sunk  by  Mr.  Astley,  at 
Dukinfield,  to  the  "  Black  Mine,"  at  the  depth  of  686 
yards ;  and  pierced  through  no  less  than  22  workable 
coals.  Towards  Congleton  this  coalfield  fines  off,  and  is 
divided  by  a  very  narrow  interval  from  that  of 

NORTH  STAFFORDSHIRE. — Here  a  very  singular  plica- 
tion or  fblding  of  the  strata  brings  in  a  most  valuable 
succession  of  coal-measures,  amounting  in  the  whole  to 
about  5,000  feet  in  thickness. 

1.  The  upper  portion    of    1,000   feet    contains    a 
quantity  of  red  and  purple  clays,  much  used  in  the 
potteries  for  bricks,  &c.,  and  only  a  few  thin  coals. 

2.  Pottery  coals  and  ironstone  measures ,   1,000  to 
1,420  feet,  with  8  to  13  seams  of  coal  of  above 
two  feet  thick,  mostly  inferior ;  and  10  to  12  mea- 
sures of  ironstone. 

3.  Lower  thick  measures,  containing  the  chief  furnace 
coals,  from  the  Ash  to  the  Winpenny  inclusive, 
17  or  18  seams  above  two  feet.     Ironstone  scarce 
or  absent. 

4.  Lowest  measures,  800  feet,  with  from  two  to  four 
thin  coal  seams. 


COALFIELDS   OF    CENTRAL    ENGLAND.  59 

Neglecting  the  seams  under  two  feet  in  thickness, 
we  have  in  certain  measured  portions  of  this  field  no 
less  than  40  seams,  with  a  total  thickness  of  140  feet 
of  coal;  in  another  c  se  24  seams,  with  109  feet. 
Among  its  more  remarkable  beds  are  the  courses  of 
carbonaceous  ironstone,  or  black-band,  which  occur  three 
or  four  in  number,  with  a  variable  thickness,  but 
amounting  in  some  cases  to  three,  four,  and  even  six 
feet,  often  crowded  with  shells  of  the  bivalve  Anthra- 
comya.  Near  these  also  comes  in  a  thin  band  of  fresh 
water  (?)  limestone,  containing  spirorbis  earbonarim, 
and  analogous  to  the  Ardwick  limestones  near  Man- 
chester, and  to  a  bed  with  the  same  fossils  in  the  coal- 
field south  of  Shrewsbury,  and  in  that  of  Warwick- 
shire. 

The  boundary  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  tract  is  the 
outcrop,  against  the  bleak  hills  of  millstone  grit;  on 
the  west  the  new  red  sandstone,  under  which  its  beds 
plunge ;  and  on  the  south  an  irregular  line,  occasioned 
by  dislocations  and  the  inletting  of  the  overlying  Per- 
mian strata. 

A  small  outlying  field,  named  after  the  town  of 
Cheadle,  with  seven  or  eight  seams,  is  of  very  limited 
importance. 

Taking  your  stand  on  the  high  ground  on  the  west 
of  the  Potteries  coalfield,  you  may,  on  a  clear  day, 
descry  the  Shropshire  field  on  the  south,  and  the 
Welsh  hills  on  the  west,  with  the  coal  area  of  Denbigh- 
shire at  their  base.  The  plain  of  new  red  sandstone 
and  marl  exetnds  almost  like  the  sea  from  one  hill 
range  to  the  other,  and  the  idea  involuntarily  suggests 
itself  to  the  mind  of  the  geologist  that  the  coal-mea- 
sures are  continuous  beneath  those  broad  intervals, 


60  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

even  though  the  depth  may  be  such  as  to  render  them, ' 
in  part  at  least,  unattainable  to  man. 

DENBIGHSHIRE  ANO  FLINTSHIRE. —Commencing  sud- 
denly with  a  bold  promontory  of  the  carboniferous 
limestone  near  Oswestry,  a  band  of  coal-measures 
reposes  against  the  chain  of  hills  which  course  by 
way  of  Ruabon  and  Mold  to  Mostyn,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Dee.  The  seams  are  not  numerous,  but  some  of 
them,  as  the  3-yard  and  5-yard  coals,  are  remarkable 
for  their  thickness  ;  and  a  bed  of  cannel,  lately  found 
near  Mold,  is  no  less  noted  for  its  excellent  quality. 
Moreover,  the  boundary  of  the  field  being,  on  the  east 
and  north-east,  the  overlying  new  red  formations, 
leaves  it  very  probable  that  a  large  amount  of  coal, 
continuous  with  that  already  worked,  may  be  found  at 
moderate  depths. 

SHROPSHIRE.  —  Omitting  some  small  unimportant 
patches  of  coal  around  Shrewsbury,  we  arrive — in  the 
Coalbrook-dale  district— at  a  focus  of  colliery  working 
intimately  connected  with  the  development  of  the 
British  iron-trade.  The  total  thickness  of  the  mea- 
sures is  but  1,000  to  1,200  feet,  and  the  number  of 
seams  of  coal  with  their  height  also  diminish  rapidly  in 
going  south,  so  that  the  55  feet  of  coal  at  Donnington 
dwindles  to  40  feet  at  Lightmoor,  and  to  16  feet  at 
Amies,  near  Broseley,  south  of  which  town  all  the  iron- 
stone measures — so  valuable  north  of  the  Severn — are 
represented  by  a  single  bed — the  Crawstone.  The 
especially  interesting  geological  characters  of  the  dis- 
trict have  been  excellently  described  by  Prestwich 
(Geol.  Trans.  2nd  Ser.  vol.  v.),  and  further  details  on 
the  ironstones  are  given  in  u  The  Iron  Ores  of  Great 
Britain  "  (Mem.  of  Geol.  Survey,  1862). 


COALFIELDS    OF    CENTRAL    ENGLAND.  61 

The  whole  of  the  old  or  hitherto-known  coalfield  will 
in  a  very  few  years  hence  be  entirely  exhausted ;  but 
already  successful  workings  have  been  put  through  the 
Permian  rocks  which  border  its  eastern  margin ;  and 
the  geologist  has  little  doubt  that  were  he  possessed  of 
physical  penetrating  power  enough  to  enable  him  to 
dip  with  the  coal-seams  as  they  incline  eastward,  he 
would,  after  a  deep  underground  passage  of  some  14 
miles,  emerge  again  in  the  coalfield  of 

SOUTH  STAFFORDSHIRE  AND  WORCESTERSHIRE. — The 
"  black  country,"  as  it  has  been  popularly  called, 
exhibits  the  most  amazing  focus  in  the  world  of  the 
various  manufactures  which  depend  on  a  plentiful 
supply  of  coal.  Its  mingled  forges,  pit-heaps,  engines, 
canals,  railways,  and  blast  furnaces,  and  the  roar  of 
activity  which  pervades  the  district,  create  in  the 
visitor  a  feeling  of  confusion,  which  only  gradually 
subsides  into  admiration  of  the  great  natural  advan- 
tages conferred  by  the  contents  of  the  substrata, — 
advantages  which  have  been  the  means  of  attracting  a 
dense  population,  and  of  raising  upon  and  around  it  a 
vast  assemblage  of  various  and  prosperous  branches  of 
industry.  The  total  area  is  not  large — about  90  square 
miles — and  the  total  thickness  of  measures  moderate — 
say  1,800  feet;  but  the  presence  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  field,  about  Dudley,  Bilston,  and  Wolverhamp- 
ton,  of  the  10-yard  coal  (from  24  to  36  feet  thick)  has 
been  a  feature  of  importance  without  a  parallel.  The 
roughness  of  the  surface  has  been  repeated  below 
ground,  and  the  mode  of  working  this  admirable  de- 
posit of  fossil  fuel  has  been  a  model  of  which  we  have' 
no  reason  to  be  proud :  sad  loss  of  life  and  great  waste 
of  coal  having  characterised  it  almost  throughout ;  and 


62  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

the  rapid  exhaustion  of  the  present  pits  renders  it  pro- 
bable that  in  a  few  years  the  workings  of  the  "  thick 
coal "  will  be  matter -of  history.  Meanwhile  the  lower 
seams  of  the  "  Heathen  "  and  "  New  Mine  "  coals  are 
coming  into  great  employ,  and  a  comparatively  new 
field  of  many  different  seams — the  separated  represen- 
tatives of  the  10-yard  coal — has  been  rapidly  opened  out 
in  Cannock  Chase.  For  the  details  of  this  coalfield  we 
must  refer  the  reader  to  the  excellent  description  by 
Mr.  Jukes,  in  the  "Memoirs  of  the  Geol.  Survey," 
2nded.,  1859. 

The  number  of  seams  may  be  given  as  averaging  six, 
with  a  total  thickness  of  50  feet  of  coal. 

Two  peculiarities  of  this  coalfield  require  to  be  men- 
tioned, even  in  a  brief  sketch  like  the  present.  1st,  the 
prevalence  of  intrusive  dykes  and  bands  of  igneous 
rock,  the  white  and  green  rock  of  the  miners ;  and  2ndly, 
the  absence  of  the  millstone  grit  and  carboniferous 
limestone,  the  coal-measures  reposing  directly  upon 
the  silurian  shales  and  limestone. 

The  glory  of  South  Staffordshire  as  an  independent 
district  is  past ;  but  the  iron-masters  make  a  gallant 
fight  of  it  in  competing  with  other  districts  by  the  in- 
troduction from  great  distances  of  cheaper  iron-ores  as 
well  as  coals,  and  by  strict  attention  to  the  quality  of 
their  products. 

WARWICKSHIRE. — On  the  south-east  of  Tamworth, 
the  clearing  away  of  the  red  marls  reveals  a  coalfield, 
which  runs  for  some  15  miles  in  length  by  Nuneaton 
and  Atherstone,  in  the  same  south-easterly  direction 
as  the  Trent- Valley  Railway.  The  total  thickness  of 
its  constituent  rocks  is  nearly  3,000  feet;  but  the 
lower  half  is  unproductive,  and  the  upper  half  contains 
only  five  seams,  will)  an  aggregate  of  2Q  feet  of  coal. 


COALFIELDS   OF    CENTRAL    ENGLAND.  63 

The  area,  too,  being  only  30  square  miles,  leaves  this 
a  very  unimportant  tract  at  present ;  but  its  signi- 
ficance as  an  indication  is  not  to  be  overlooked,  seeing 
that,  like  the  last  and  next  following  coalfields,  it  is 
surrounded  for  the  most  part  by  the  new  red  forma- 
tions, and  may,  therefore,  with  confidence,  be  expected 
at  a  future  day  to  be  greatly  extended. 

LEICESTERSHIRE. — In  this  county — again  after  an 
interval  of  a  few  miles  of  the  covering,  of  red  rocks — a 
coal-producing  tract  presents  itself.  With  a  total 
amount  of  strata  a  little  less  than  the  last,  it  exhibits 
more  seams,  generally  ten  of  workable  thickness, 
with  45  feet  aggregate  of  coal.  The  Moira  Colliery, 
near  Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  is  very  largely  opened  on  the 
fine  "  main  seam  "  of  12  feet  thick,  of  which  only  the 
upper  six  feet,  the  over  coal,  is  taken  out  in  the  present 
operations ;  the  nether  coal,  of  rather  inferior  quality, 
remaining  for  a  future  day. 

The  actual  area  of  the  denuded  coalfield  is  only  15 
square  miles  ;  but  several  pits  have  already  been  sunk 
with  success  beyond  its  boundaries  through  the  over- 
lying strata. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  compare,  for  the  above  dis- 
tricts, the  production  of  coal  during  1864  with  that  ol 
ten  years  ago. 

Produce  of  coal  in  1854.  1864. 

Yorkshire 7,260,000  tons.     8,809,600  tons. 

Derbyshire 2,406,696     „        4,470,750  „ 

Nottinghamshire.     .     .     .  813,474     „           796,700  „ 

Lancashire 9,080,500     „      11,530,000  „ 

Cheshire 786,500     „           822,750  „ 

Shropshire 1,080,000     „        1,150,000  „ 

Staffordshire  and  Worces- 
tershire      7,500,000     „      11,459,851  „ 

Warwickshire 255,000     „           754,000  „ 

Leicestershire 439,000     „           890,500  „ 

North  Wales 1,143,000     „        1,987,060  „ 


64  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

The  ratios  of  increase  in  ten  years  in  the  different 
counties  are  remarkably  unlike ;  and  whilst  in  most 
cases  the  quantity  raised  has  been  augmented  by  from 
20  to  60  per  cent.,  in  a  few  of  them  it  has  been  more 
than  doubled.  The  numerous  canals  and  railways  of 
central  England  greatly  increase  the  mutual  connection 
of  these  several  fields,  and  as  time  advances,  new  bore- 
holes and  sinkings  will  ere  long  throw  additional  light 
on  their  natural  relationship. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

COALFIELDS    OF   THE  WEST  OF   ENGLAND,    SOUTH   WALES, 
AND   IRELAND. 

BRISTOL  AND  BATH. — A  large  area,  extending  for  some 
25  miles  in  length  from  the  Mendip  hills  on  the  south, 
and  closing  to  a  point  near  Wickwar,  consists  of  coal- 
measures  exposed  to  the  surface  in  large  patches,  but 
covered  over  much  of  their  extent  with  the  newer  forma- 
tions— red  sandstone,  lias,  and  oolite.  On  the  southern, 
western,  and  north-eastern  edges  the  coal-bearing  strata 
repose  on  the  carboniferous  limestone;  whilst  their 
eastern  termination,  where  they  pass  under  the  Bath 
oolites,  is  at  present  uncertain.  The  total  thickness 
of  the  series,  above  the  millstone  grit,  or  "  Farewell 
rock,"  is  about  5,000  feet;  but  except  over  certain 
small  portions  of  the  ground,  the  upper  part  of  the 
series,  containing  some  of  the  best  household  coals, 
has  been  swept  away  by  denudation  prior  to  the  de- 
position of  the  red  rocks.  Thus,  in  the  rich  district 


COALFIELDS  OF  THE  WEST  OF  ENGLAND,  ETC.  65 

north-east  of  Bristol,  the  uppermost  seams  appear  to 
be  absent,  whilst  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Radstock 
and  Midsomer  Norton  a  very  interesting  basin-shaped 
deposit  of  them  is  explored  by  the  collieries  of  H.R.H. 
the  Prince  of  Wales  and  of  Lady  Waldegrave.  These 
seams  are  already  deep  at  some  of  the  pits;  as  for 
example,  200  fathoms  at  Clandown  (where  40  fathoms 
are  sunk  through  overlying  formations),  and  above 
100  fathoms  of  barren  strata  intervene  before  another 
group  of  coal  seams  is  arrived  at.  The  second  group 
occupies,  of  course,  a  much  larger  area  than  the  first, 
and  is  worked  at  Farrington  Gurney,  &c.  Next  in 
order  comes  a  great  thickness  of  sandstones,  termed 
the  "  Pennant,"  which  occasionally  present  the  rough 
structure  of  millstone  grit.  Below  the  Pennant  we 
have  again  a  deep  series  of  shales,  containing  a  con- 
siderable number  of  seams,  some  of  which  are  worked 
at  Bedminster,  Stratton-on-the-Fosse,  &c. ;  whilst  the 
lowest  coals,  very  close  to  the  limestone  base,  arc 
worked  at  Yobster,  Ashton,  and  at  Nailsea. 

It  is  observable  that  the  mode  of  working  adopted  in 
the  southern  part  of  this  district,  coupled  with  certain 
local  advantages,  has  rendered  it  possible  to  work 
coal  seams  of  little  more  than  one  foot  thick ;  nay,  in 
one  of  the  "  little  veins,"  I  have  measured  the  height 
to  be  only  11  inches  of  coal !  We  may,  therefore,  take 
a  comparatively  greater  number  of  seams  in  this  field  to 
be  "  workable,"  and  it  would  appear  that  they  may  be 
grouped  as  follows  : — 

Upper  series,  Eadstock,  6  seams,  with  total  of  11  to  12  feet  of  coal. 
Second,  or  Farrington  series,  4  workable  seams,  with  6  to  12  feet  of  coal. 
Pennant  grit,  with  thin  seams,  1,500  feet. 

Third  series,  Bedminster,  Stratton-on-the-Fosse,  "\  20  to  36  seams,  with 
Lowest  series,  Vobster,  Nailsea,  &c.,  *      60  feet  of  coal. 

£ 


bO  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

The  last  two  groups  are  not  very  distinctly  separated, 
and  their  seams  are  difficult  to  identify,  from  their 
being  variable  in  character  and  being  much  disturbed 
where  they  approach  the  limestone.  Indeed,  the  ver- 
tical and  even  overthrown  condition  of  the  strata  at 
Vobster,  on  the  north  flank  of  the  Mendip  hills,  is  our 
nearest  approach,  in  Great  Britain,  to  the  abrupt  fold- 
ings which  are  so  remarkable  in  the  coalfields  of 
Belgium. 

When  we  look  to  the  numerous  and  thin  seams  of 
the  south  portion  of  this  field,  and  the  violent  contor- 
tions to  which,  along  with  their  limestone  base,  the 
coal  strata  have  been  subjected,  we  are  induced  to 
recognise  the  Belgian  type,  and  to  look  eastward,  in 
the  direction  of  the  axis  of  disturbance,  for  a  continua- 
tion of  the  trough  of  coal-measures.  Evidence,  how- 
ever, not  altogether  conclusive,  has  been  obtained  by 
boring,  which  would  make  it  probable  that  the  lower 
measures  also,  like  the  upper  ones,  crop  up  under  the 
overlying  rocks.  Towards  Bath,  at  Twiverton,  seams 
of  the  lower  series,  much  faulted  and  highly  inclined, 
are  worked,  but  it  is  uncertain  how  far  they  extend. 
We  may  also  speculate  on  the  coal-measures  being 
brought  in  again  by  convolution  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Mendips,  beneath  the  more  recent  formations ; 
but  on  this  point  no  trials  appear  to  have  been  made. 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  a  source  of  error  in  estima- 
ting the  quantity  of  coal  in  the  ground  is  very  observ- 
able in  parts  of  this  field;  viz.,  that  certain  tracts  of 
the  good  seams  have  been  so  faulted  and  squeezed  by 
natural  causes  as  to  yield  little  else  than  slack,  and 
thus  to  be  commercially  valueless.  And  a  notable 
peculiarity  is  met  with  in  the  overlap  faults  at  Radstock 


COALFIELDS  OF  THE  WEST  OF  ENGLAND,  ETC.         67 

and  Clandown,  where  the  seams  are  dislocated  by  slides 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  usual  one,  and  are  thus 
doubled  over  themselves,  so  as  to  give,  over  a  breadth 
of  from  50  to  200  and  even  300  yards,  a  double  tract 
of  the  same  coal. 

FOREST  OF  DEAN. — This  complete  and  picturesque 
little  coal  basin,  clothed  in  great  part  with  fine  oak 
forest,  is  an  admirable  study  for  the  student, — dipping 
on  all  sides  towards  the  centre,  and  skirted  by  its  base 
rock,  the  carboniferous  limestone.  It  is  about  34  square 
miles  in  extent,  and  from  its  regularity  is  thoroughly 
known,  even  where  as  yet  unproved  by  pits.* 

The  coal  measures  are  about  2,300  feet  thick,  and 
contain,  principally  in  their  lower  part,  eleven  seams  of 
18  inches  up  to  5  feet  high,  giving  a  total  thickness  of 
about  27  feet  of  coal. 

Below  the  Churchway,  and  above  the  Coleford  HigL 
Delf  seam,  there  occurs  a  thick  series  of  sandstones, 
giving  rise  to  numerous  excellent  quarries,  and  which 
in  some  degree  appears  to  be  equivalent  to  the  Pennant 
of  the  Bristol  field. 

Several  of  the  coals  about  the  middle  of  the  series 
are  remarkable  for  the  great  number  and  variety  of 
fossil-plant  remains  found  in  the  roofs :  whilst  the 
lowest  thick  coal,  the  Coleford  Highdelf,  from  4  to 
10  feet  6  inches,  shows  only  sigillarise  and  other  large 
obscure  trunks  of  trees.  Ironstones  are  almost  entirely 
absent,  but  the  want  of  them  is  amply  made  up  for  by 
the  admirable  brown  oxide  of  iron  found  abundantly  in 

*  A  beautiful  model,  showing  most  instructively  the  position  of  the 
various  seams,  was  constructed  some  years  ago  by  Mr.  T.  Sopwith, 
F.K.S.,  and  was  deposited  by  H.M.  Commissioners  of  Woods  and 
Forests  in  the  Museum  of  Practical  Geology,  Jermyn-street. 

F2 


68  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

churns  or  irregular  deposits  in  the  upper  portion  of 
the  limestone. 

The  Dean  Forest  field  produced  in  1854,  420,866 
tons  of  coal;  in  1865,  739,840  tons. 

DEVONSHIRE. — In  the  north  of  this  county,  the 
neighbourhood  of  Bideford  is  remarkable  for  the  occur- 
rence of  small  seams  of  anthracite,  or  culm,  which  have 
been  worked  to  a  considerable  extent.  They  are  of  but 
small  commercial  importance,  but  are  interesting  as 
offering  a  parallel  to*  the  thin  seams  found  in  the  large 
tract  of  carboniferous  slate  in  the  south-west  of 
Ireland. 

SOUTH  WALES. — The  magnificent  coalfield  which 
extends  from  Pontypool  on  the  east  to  St.  Bride's 
Bay  on  the  west,  and  occupies  some  900  square  miles, 
chiefly  in  the  counties  of  Mon mouth,  Glamorgan,  and 
Carmarthen,  is  no  less  remarkable  for  its  thickness 
than  for  the  variety  and  excellence  of  its  products. 
Based  upon  a  foundation  of  bold  hills  of  limestone, 
which  rise  on  its  northern,  southern,  and  eastern  limits, 
it  forms  through  a  great  part  of  this  length  an  elon- 
gated basin,  containing  a  mass  of  picturesque  hilly 
land,  intersected  by  numerous  streams,  which  have  a 
mainly  north  and  south  direction,  and  in  which  the 
greater  number  of  the  works  are  situated.  The  very 
numerous  dislocations  by  which  it  is  intersected  follow 
a  still  more  regular  meridional  course.  The  great 
breath  of  the  field,  from  12  to  16  miles,  and  the  rapid 
inclination  of  the  strata,  would  soon  carry  them  down 
to  unattainable  depths,  but  for  their  being  again  raised 
nearer  to  the  surface  by  an  axis  of  elevation,  or  anti- 
clinal ridge,  which  is  traceable  along  a  considerable 
distance  in  an  east  and  west  direction. 


COALFIELDS  OF  THE  WEST  OF  ENGLAND,  ETC.  69 

In  Monmouthshire  the  thickness  of  the  strata  is  far 
less  than  in  the  more  western  portion,  and  the  maxi- 
mum depth  to  the  lowest  important  seam  (the  Black 
Vein)  may  be  estimated  at  650  yards,  whilst  the  lowest 
workable  coal  would  be  reached  at  750  yards  from  the 
surface  in  the  valleys.*  Here  the  uppermost  notable 
seam  is  the  well-known  house  coal,  the  Mynydd  Isslwyn, 
5  feet  6  inches,  which,  occupying  only  the  middle  of  the 
trough,  has  already  been  worked  out  over  a  great  part 
of  its  area.  Beneath  this  comes  a  great  thickness  of 
sandstones,  the  "  Pennant ;"  and  below  that  again  the 
measures,  including  the  excellent  furnace-coals  and 
clay  iron  ores,  which  have  given  rise  to  the  great  iron- 
works of  Pontypool,  Ebbw  Vale,  Tredegar,  &c. 

Farther  west,  the  sandstones  are  greatly  augmented 
in  thickness,  and  are  surmounted  by  a  series  of  mea- 
sures with  many  workable  seams,  which  appear  to  be 
exhibited  in  full  development  to  the  north  of  Swansea. 
But  still  farther  westward,  at  Llanelly,  an  upper  series 
of  seams  occupy  a  comparatively  narrow  area,  coursing 
east  and  west,  where  the  full  thickness  of  the  coal- 
measures  is  estimated  to  amount  to  no  less  than 
10,000  feet.  If,  therefore,  we  include  these,  where 
they  are  worked  on  the  north-east  of  Llanelly,  and 
extending  to  the  Llwchwr  River,  we  have  the  following 
full  section : — 

Uppermost  or  Llanelly  series,  1,000  feet,  with  8  seams,  and  a  total  of  18 

feet  of  coal. 
Penllergare  series,  &c.,  3,000  feet,  with  16  seams  above  18  inches,  and  a 

total  of  50  feet  of  coal.     (Down  to  the  Hughes  seam  of  Swansea.) 
Swansea  sandstones  (Pennant),  2,700  feet,  with  15  seams  and  28  feet 

of  coal. 
Lower  series,  400  to  1,400  feet,  with  18  seams  and  83  feet  of  coal. 

*  According  to  surveys  made  by  Mr.  T.  Forster  Brown,  F.G.S., 
H.M.  Deputy  Gaveller  in  Dean  Forest. 


70  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

The  local  variations,  and  especially  the  thinning-  at 
eastward  of  many  of  the  beds,  render  a  general  section, 
such  as  the  above,  inapplicable  except  to  a  limited  part 
of  the  area. 

On  the  west  of  Carmarthen  Bay  the  thickness  of  the 
measures  is  again  greatly  reduced,  and  their  value  is 
much  deteriorated  by  the  violent  foldings  and  convo- 
lutions to  which  they  have  been  subjected,  and  which 
may  be  seen  at  their  maximum  in  the  cliffs  of  St. 
Bride's  Bay. 

The  north-eastern  part  of  the  field  is  principally 
remarkable  for  its  excellent  partially  bituminous  coals. 
In  the  neighbourhood  of  Aberdare  the  seams  acquire  in 
the  highest  degree  those  free-burning  and  yet  smoke- 
less properties,  which  adapt  them  especially  to  steam 
purposes.  The  run  that  has  consequently  been  made 
upon  the  coals  of  these  valleys,  has  led  to  the  opening 
of  such  numerous,  and  such  vigorously  worked  col- 
lieries, that  large  tracts  of  the  best  seam,  the  Aberdare 
four-foot,  have  already  been  exhausted.  From  hence 
westward  the  coals  of  the  south  outcrop  remain  bitu- 
minous as  i'ar  as  beyond  the  Llanelly  district,  whilst 
those  along  the  northern  side  of  the  field  change  to 
anthracite,  and  this  latter  variety  of  coal  alone  is 
yielded  by  the  seams  rising  northward  in  Carmarthen- 
shire, and  by  all  those  of  Pembrokeshire.  Even  within 
a  distance  of  a  few  hundred  yards,  the  Llanelly  beds 
are  seen  to  be  bituminous  where  they  rise  to  the  south, 
and  anthracitic  in  the  opposite  side  of  the  trough. 

The  produce  of  the  western  districts  has  been  as 
follows : — 

1854.  1864. 

Gloucestershire  and  Somersetshire    .     1,492,366  tons    1,950,000  tona. 
Monmouthshire    \  R  ~no  nnn         J  4,028,500    ,„ 

South  Wales  8,500,000    „    { 6>948>000    > 


COALFIELDS  OF  THE  WEST  OF  ENGLAND,  ETC.  71 

An  examination  of  the  constituent  strata,  and  of  the 
positions  of  these  western  coalfields,  will  lead  to  the 
induction  that  they  have  formerly  been  united,  and 
that  in  Dean  Forest  we  have  a  link  between  its  larger 
neighbours,  which  has  been  preserved  from  denudation 
by  its  fortunately  having  been  folded  into  a  basin  form. 
The  twenty  miles  which  intervene  between  Coleford  and 
the  Welsh  hills  exhibit  only  the  Old  Red  sandstone, 
the  base  on  which  coal  measures  once  rested,  long  since 
swept  away  by  the  wearing  action  of  the  sea,  when 
the  land  has  been  raised  after  periods  of  submergence. 

IRELAND. — The  coalfields  of  the  sister  country  form 
a  most  interesting  study  to  the  geologist,  but  unfor- 
tunately yielding  only  a  total  annual  quantity  of  125,000 
tons,  present  to  the  commercial  or  technical  inquirer 
features  of  little  present  value  and  of  no  future  pros- 
pects. He  who  has  passed  long  days  in  exploring  the 
hilly  coal  country  of  Carlow,  Kilkenny,  or  Tipperary, 
— now  examining  the  fossils  of  the  shales,  which  remind 
him  of  those  of  the  lowest  coal  series  of  central  England, 
and  anon  looking  down  upon  the  wide  plains  of  car- 
boniferous limestone  which  form  the  great  bulk  of  the 
low  country, — cannot  but  soon  arrive  at  the  conviction 
that  Nature  probably  gave  to  Ireland  with  a  liberal 
hand,  but  has  again  taken  away  what  she  had  given. 
The  isolated  little  coalfields  which  exist  at  present  are 
but  the  remnants  of  important  deposits  which  have 
been  torn  away  by  denudation ;  and  as  they  are  unmis- 
takably the  few  lowermost  beds  of  the  formation,  no 
discoveries  are  to  be  expected  from  boring.  It  is, 
nevertheless,  noticeable  that  the  lower  portions  of  the 
carboniferous  strata  are  developed  in  great  thickness, 
for  the  limestone  is  succeeded  by  several  hundred  feet 


72  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

of  black  shale,  as  in  Derbyshire,  and  then  by  some  500 
to  700  feet  of  flagstones,  which  form  a  parallel  to  our 
millstone  grit.  The  coal  measures  attaining  sometimes 
a  thickness  of  1,800  feet,  contain  but  a  few  seams, 
mostly  very  thin,  of  anthracite,  extremely  broken, 
compressed,  and  uncertain,  in  county  Cork,  but  in  the 
Tipperary  and  Castlecomer  fields,  forming  basins  of 
considerable  regularity. 

In  the  north  of  Ireland,  coalfields  of  very  small 
extent  occur  in  Tyrone  and  Antrim ;  which,  although 
some  of  the  seams  are  of  bituminous  quality,  exhibit 
in  the  main  characters  very  similar  to  those  of  the 
south.  And  thus  the  whole  of  the  deposits  of  fossil 
fuel,  being  but  fragments  capable  of  a  very  limited 
supply,  it  is  fortunate  that  the  town  populations  of 
Ireland  can  be  supplied  with  such  facility  from  the 
Clyde,  Whitehaven,  the  Mersey,  and  the  Dee ;  and 
that  Nature  has  in  some  measure  made  amends  for  the 
absence  of  coal  by  the  gift  of  peat  bogs  of  unsurpassed 
extent  and  quality. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CONTINENTAL  EUROPEAN   OOALI1ELDS. 

FRANCE. — Although  unable  fully  to  supply  the  de- 
mands of  a  large  population  and  high  civilisation,  the 
French  coalfields  are  neither  few  nor  poor  in  contents. 
The  sum  total  of  the  coal  production  of  France  is 
obtained  from  above  fifty  different  patches  of  the  coal 
formation,  only  a  few  of  which  need  to  be  cited  as  of 
permanent  importance.  They  may  be  grouped  as  the 


CONTINENTAL   EUROPEAN   COALFIELDS.  73 

coalfields   of  the   north,   of  the   centre,   and   of   the 
south. 

That  of  the  north,  occupying  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
in  the  departments  du  Nord  and  Pas  de  Calais,  is  at 
the  one  end  continuous  with  that  of  Belgium,  whilst 
on  the  other  it  gradually  diminishes  in  value  as  it  IP 
followed  from  Valenciennes  and  Bethune,  towards 
Hardinghen  and  Boulogne.  Considering  how  the  coaL 
measures  are  covered  by  the  chalk,  or  cretaceous  strata, 
80  to  150  yards  thick,  some  of  them  offering  very 
serious  obstacles  to  the  sinking  of  shafts,  it  is  credit- 
able to  the  sagacity  and  perseverance  of  the  French 
engineers  and  coal  owners  that  they  have  so  ferreted 
out  the  character  and  position  of  these  concealed  trea- 
sures, as  to  have  brought  the  production  of  this  field 
already  up  to  three  millions  of  tons.  The  seams  are 
not  actually  traceable  without  a  gap  into  Belgium,  but 
are  of  a  similar  character, — regular  and  numerous,  yet 
thin :  thus  the  12  beds  of  Aniche  give  together  but 
23  feet  of  coal;  4  beds  worked  at  Douchy,  11  feet 
6  inches  ;  18  at  Anzin,  39  feet. 

A  comparison  of  these  features  with  those  exhibited 
on  the  flanks  of  our  Mendip  hills,  and  an  observation 
of  the  underground  course  of  the  sharp  trough  of 
French  coal  strata,  deflected  as  it  is  from  its  Belgian 
direction  when  it  arrives  at  Douay,  inclines  us  to  the 
speculation  that  the  palaeozoic  rocks  may  be  continuous 
from  the  Severn  to  the  Rhine.  The  question  may  pos- 
sibly be  of  little  practical  importance,  but  is  one  of 
great  interest  as  regards  the  original  deposition  of  the 
carboniferous  series.* 

*  Mr.  Godwin  Austin  long  since  propounded  this  view  on  purely 
geological  grounds.  Quart.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc.,  vol.  xi. 


74  COAL    AND   COAL-MINING. 

The  coalfields  of  central  France  are  remarkable  for 
their  irregular  and  small  area,  and  the  fragmentary 
and  unequal  state  in  which  most  of  the  seams  occur. 
They  are  commonly  based  upon  some  of  the  primary 
rocks,  granite,  gneiss,  &c. ;  and  a  great  part  of  their 
constituent  mass  consists  of  coarse  grits,  and,  towards 
the  base,  of  rough  conglomerate.  The  seams  attain, 
here  and  there,  a  vast  thickness,  even  up  to  40,  60, 
and  80  feet,  but  are  much  broken,  and  subject  to 
sudden  changes.  Some  of  the  French  geologists  are 
inclined  to  consider  them  the  result  of  deposition  in 
lakes,  in  contradistinction  to  the  fields  of  the  North 
and  of  England,  where  they  repose  in  the  obviously 
marine  beds  of  the  mountain  limestone. 

The  most  important  of  them  is  the  district  of  St. 
Etienne  and  Eive  de  Gier  (Loire),  occupying  a  length 
of  about  34  miles,  and  in  which  the  lower  seams  occupy 
an  area  of  60,000  acres.  One  of  these  varies  from  30  to 
70  feet  in  thickness.  On  these  follow  some  hundreds 
of  yards  thick  of  barren  sandstones,  and  then  an  upper 
series  of  20  seams  of  from  3  to  16  feet  thick,  which 
only  cover  a  surface  of  about  10,000  acres,  and  in  the 
midst  of  which  the  full  thickness  of  the  basin  appears 
to  be  near  5,000  feet.  The  active  manufacturing  in- 
dustry of  this  neighbourhood  has  raised  the  production 
to  as  much  as  three  millions  of  tons. 

Another  remarkable  basin  is  that  of  the  Saone  et 
Loire,  the  chief  working  centres  of  which  are  Creusot, 
Blanzy,  Montceau,  Montchanin,  and  Epignac,  where  the 
measures  contain  only  ten  beds  of  coal,  but  at  Blanzy 
two  of  them  run  from  30  to  60  feet  each ;  and  at  Mont- 
chanin, as  at  Creusot,  one  seam  attains  locally  the  extra- 
ordinary amount  of  from  60  to  130  feet  in  thickness. 


CONTINENTAL   EUROPEAN    COALFIELDS.  75 

Most  of  these  central  fields  are,  unfortunately,  mere 
basins  in  the  older  rocks,  so  that  their  contents  are 
rigidly  defined ;  yet  a  few  of  them — as  that  of  Creusot 
and  Blanzy — offer  some  prospect  of  continuation, 
especially  on  the  south-west,  beneath  the  covering  of 
newer  formations. 

In  the  south,  the  coalfield  of  Alais,  in  the  depart- 
ments du  Gard  and  Ardeche,  conveniently  situate  for 
the  supply  of  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  that 
of  the  Aveyron,  are  both  of  them  noticeable  for  a  yield 
which  has  increased  much  within  a  few  years  past,  and 
for  having  probable  reserves  beneath  the  Jurassic  strata, 
which  on  certain  sides  bound  the  visible  extent  of  the 
coal-measures. 

In  1863,  with  a  home  production  of  10 J  millions  of 
tons — increased  in  1864  to  11,100,000 — France  con- 
sumed half  as  much  again  imported  from  abroad.* 
Since  1815  the  amount  raised  from  French  pits  has 
been  multiplied  tenfold ;  but  it  is  still  a  problem 
whether  the  rapidly  increasing  demand  will  ever  be 
met  by  the  production  of  the  country.  My  own  visits 
to  a  few  pits  have  impressed  on  me  the  conviction  that 
the  French  coal-seams  are  usually  much  more  difficult 
to  work  economically  than  our  own ;  and  that  hence 
the  prices,  ruling  higher  than  in  more  favoured  dis- 
tricts, will  always  render  it  difficult  for  the  coal-owners 
to  compete  on  the  large  scale  with  those  of  England, 
Belgium,  or  Prussia. 

BELGIUM. — The  deepest  pits  in  the  world  have  been 
opened  in  that  narrow,  but  actively  worked,  zone  of 

*  The  imports  into  France  were,  in  1864 : — 

From  Belgium 3,500,000  tons. 

„      Prussia 1,800,000     „ 

„     England 1,200,000     „ 

6,500,000  tons. 


COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

coal-measures  which,  runs  from  west  to  east  by  Mons, 
Charleroi,  and  Namur,  to  Liege.  Especially  in  its 
western  portion,  the  district  of  Hainaut,  the  high  angle 
of  inclination  of  the  strata,  sharply  folded  and  even 
zigzagged  into  a  narrow  trough,  has  occasioned  the 
shafts  to  attain  in  several  cases  over  750m,  or  2,460 
feet ;  one  shaft,  at  the  Viviers  Reunis,  near  Grilly,  even 
l,040m,  or  3,411  feet. 

The  Belgian  coalfield,  which  is  in  all  above  100 
miles  in  length,  and  generally  4  tp  6  miles  wide,  is 
subdivided  into  several  basins,  among  which  that  of 
Mons  exhibits  the  fullest  development  of  the  forma- 
tion. No  less  than  157  seams  are  known  by  name,  of 
which  120  are  workable,  varying  from  10  inches  to 
3  feet.  The  upper  series  of  47  seams,  not  seen  else- 
where in  the  country,  are  the  Flenu, — a  coal  burning 
with  long  flame  and  giving  off  much  gas ;  the  next 
group  of  21  are  coking  coals  ;  then  comes  a  third,  of 
29  beds  of  charbon  de forge;  and  last,  20  to  25  beds  of 
charbon  sec  or  maigre,  dry  coal,  burning  with  small 
flame. 

The  production  of  the  different  districts  of  this  field 
was,  in  1863  :— 

1863.  1864. 

Mons  ....     3,203,397  tons.  .     .    3,453,345  tons. 

Centre     .     .     .     1,319,175    „  .     .     1,394,757     „ 

Charleroi     .     .     3,578,230    „  .     .     3,822,290    „ 
Namur    .     .     .        255,767    „ 
Liege.     .     .     .     1,988,361    „ 


Total  .     .     .  10,345,330  tons. 

The  northern  side  of  this  long  synclinal  trough  in- 
clines much  more  moderately  than  the  southern ;  and 
in  the  sharp-angled  zigzag  contortions  the  same  con- 
trast between  the  two  sides  may  often  be  seen;  an 


CONTINENTAL   EUROPEAN    COALFIELDS. 


77 


arrangement  recalling  the  phenomena  of  our  Pem- 
brokeshire field.  M.  Dormoy,  a  French  engineer,  has 
constructed  some  beautiful  maps  to  illustrate  his  views, 
and  considers  that,  in  consequence  of  the  swerving 
direction  of  a  great  east  and  west  dislocation,  the 
southern  half  of  the  trough  is  wanting,  except  in  the 
rich  elliptical  basin  of  the  Couchant  de  Mons,  where 
the  total  thickness  of  the  measures  is  estimated  at 
8,000  feet. 

A  striking  example  of  the  zigzag  structure  of  the 
coal-measures  is.  seen  in  the  accompanying  section  of 
the  mine  des  Six  Bonniers,  near  Namur. 


Fig.  10. 

The  mode  of  working  is  generally  by  a  modified 
kind  of  long- work,  but  one  requiring  a  vast  quantity 
of  timber,  much  of  which  is  lost.  Within  the  last 
twenty  years  great  strides  have  been  made  in  the 
improvement  of  their  machinery,  and  the  output  at 
the  larger  pits  is  very  considerable ;  whilst  the  expense 
of  deep  sinkings  tends,  as  in  the  north  of  England,  to 
increase  the  area  worked  from  a  given  pit.  The  quan- 
tity raised  per  man  is  much  less  than  the  usual  English 


78  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

standard,  partly  in  consequence  of  the  thinness  and 
difficult  position  of  .the  seams.  Not  long  ago  all  the 
work-people  were,  by.  law,  obliged  to  travel  up  and 
clown  by  ladders,  but  at  present  many  are  raised  by 
the  cages ;  and  the  fahrkunst,  or,  as  it  has  been  termed, 
Warocquiere  (from  M.  de  Warocque,  who  erected  an 
excellent  one  on  his  own  works  at  Mariemont),  has  been 
applied  with  great  success  at  several  of  the  larger 
collieries. 

The  price  of  coals  in  Belgium  is  very  high;  16s.  to 
205.  per  ton  being  obtained  for  large,  and  85.  to  10s. 
and  15s.  for  mixed  and  small.  They  are  divided  into 
the  following  classes,  according  to  size : — Homlle,  large 
blocks ;  gaillette,  lumps  ;  gailleteries^  pieces  the  size  of 
a  fist ;  gailletins,  or  tetes  de  moineau,  nuts ;  and  menu, 
smalls,  or  slack  ;  whilst  the  name  of  gilleteux  is  given 
to  mixed  sorts. 

PRUSSIA. — Almost  continuous  with  the  Belgian  field, 
the  two  highly  contorted  coal-basins  of  the  Inde,  near 
Eschweiler,  and  of  the  Wurm,  near  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
have  been  worked  from  a  very  early  period ;  and  ex- 
tending as  they  do  to  a  great  depth,  contain  large 
reserves  of  coal.  In  the  same  direction,  farther  east- 
ward, after  crossing  the  valley  of  the  Khine,  comes  the 
large  and  rich  coalfield  of  the  Ruhr,  or  of  West- 
phalia ;  which,  although  mined  near  Dortmund  as  early 
as  1302,  has  only  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
risen  to  a  high  degree  of  importance. 

That  portion  of  the  coalfield  which  is  visible  at  the 
surface  consists  in  the  main  of  three  parallel  synclinals, 
rich  in  a  vast  number  of  seams,  of  which  the  upper- 
most are  a  good  bituminous  coal,  the  middle  series 
semi- bituminous  (Sinter  or  Ess-Kohleri),  and  the  lower 


CONTINENTAL   EUROPEAN   COALFIELDS.  79 

seams  non-bituminous  or  Sand-coals.  There  are  here 
110  less  than  117  seams,  in  1,203  fathoms  of  measures, 
containing  an  aggregate  of  294  feet  of  coal.  Nearly 
three-fourths  of  the  number  are  of  workable  size,  and 
they  are  now  recognised  and  mapped  over  the  entire 
district  by  the  aid  of  three  or  four  guide-seams  of 
special  character  and  persistence.  Of  late  years 
numerous  and  systematic  borings  through  the  chalk 
strata  which  overlie  the  coal-measures  on  the  North 
have  proved  the  existence  of  several  additional  similar 
folds  over  a  still  larger  area,  so  that  the  prospective 
value  of  the  field  has  been  more  than  doubled ;  and  it 
is  estimated  that  it  contains  no  less  than  39,200 
millions  of  tons.  But  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 

Hagen.  Eecklinghausen. 

Herdecke.  Gastrop. 


Fig.  11. 

a.  Lower  carboniferous  rocks,  sterile  sandstones. 
5.  Productive  coal  measures. 
c.  Cretaceous  strata. 

coalfield  of  the  Continent  is  that  of  Saarbriicken,  on 
the  south  of  the  Hunsriick  range,  and  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Ehine.  In  this  extensive  and  isolated  tract  a 
greater  thickness  of  measures  and  of  coal  exists  than 
anywhere  else  in  Europe.  Prussia  has  the  good  fortune 
to  possess  the  lion's  share,  whilst  a  small  but  valuable 
division,  containing  the  lower  seams  only,  falls  within 
the  confines  of  Khenish  Bavaria  (Khein-pfalz),  and  the 
tail  end  has  been  proved  by  borings  and  sinking  to 
extend  within  the  French  frontier.  The  coal  basin,  in 


80  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

outside  measure,  is  about  60  miles  long  by  20  wide, 
and  its  lower  strata  attain,  in  a  line  from  Bettingen  to 
Tholei,  the  enormous  depth  of  20,000  feet,  whence  a 
great  portion  of  the  coal  must  ever  remain  practically 
unattainable. 

The  Prussian  mining  officers,  under  the  lead  of 
Noggerath  and  Von  Dechen,  have  made  most  accurate 
surveys  and  sections  of  the  measures,  from  which  we 
find  that  the  total  number  of  seams  above  6  inches 
thick  is  164,  containing  in  all,  338  feet  of  coal,  whilst 
the  number  at  present  deemed  workable,  i.e.  above 
2  feet,  is  77?  with  240  feet  of  coal,  and  they  estimate 
that  the  quantity  of  workable  coal  down  to  the  depth 
of  342  fathoms,  in  the  three  Prussian  circles  of 
Saarbriicken,  Saarlouis,  and  Ottweiler,  is  2,7 50  millions 
of  tons,  whilst  the  total  amount  in  the  measures  for 
the  same  limited  area  would  be  above  ten  times  that 
quantity. 

In  the  International  Exhibition  of  1862,  perfect 
sections  of  some  of  these  beds  of  coal  engaged  attention, 
and  the  seams  called  Callenberg,  Schwalbach,  Beust, 
and  Blucher,  reared  up  against  the  walls  with  their 
full  height  of  10,  12,  and  14  feet,  afforded  a  fine 
sample  of  the  products  of  collieries  which  now  export 
largely  into  France.  One  notable  peculiarity  in  the 
coals,  and  in  which  they  differ  strangely  from  those  of 
Westphalia  and  Belgium,  is  that  the  lowest  known 
seams  are  bituminous  or  caking  coal,  a  ad  that  the 
higher  they  range  in  the  series  the  more  dry  or 
anthracitic  do  they  become.  Of  small  importance  as 
reserves  of  fossil  fuel,  compared  with  the  two  last, 
but  yet  very  suggestive  in  a  geological  point  of  view, 
are  the  two  isolated  protrusions  of  coal  of  Ibbenbiiren 


CONTINENTAL   EUROPEAN   COALFIELDS.  81 

and  the  Piesberg,  near  Osnabriick.  They  consist  of 
true  coal-measures,  in  which  from  five  to  seven  seams 
have  been  proved  and  worked  on  a  moderate  scale. 
Before  quitting  Westphalia,  it  should  be  added  that 
seams  of  exceptionally  good  coal,  for  the  newer  forma- 
tions, occur  in  the  Wealden  strata  which  traverse  a 
part  of  the  kingdom  and  extend  into  Hanover  and 
Brunswick.  In  the  districts  of  Tecklenburg,  Minden, 
Osnabriick,  &c.,  these  seams,  which  run  from  10  to  44 
inches,  are  a  good  deal  worked  for  local  purposes,  and 
yield  in  some  places  caking,  in  others  anthracitic 
coal. 

Another  Prussian  coal  region,  that  of  Wettin  and 
Lobejiin,  near  Halle,  claims  attention  as  forming  a 
link  between  the  north-western  fields  and  those  of 
Saxony.  It  has  long  been  worked,  although  figuring 
to  a  very  small  amount  in  the  annual  returns. 

On  crossing  the  Prussian  territories  to  their  south- 
eastern corner,  we  arrive  at  the  remote  and  compara- 
tively unwrought  coalfields  of  Silesia.  That  of  Lower 
Silesia  extends  through  the  circles  of  Landshut,  Wal- 
denburg,  and  Glatz  into  Bohemia  on  the  south-west. 
That  of  Upper  Silesia  occupies  parts  of  the  circles  of 
Ratibor,  Bybnick,  Pless,  &c.,  and  passes  on  the  one  side 
into  Moravia  and  Austrian  Silesia,  on  the  other  by 
Beuthen,  towards  Krakau.  This  latter  field  especially, 
which  was  commenced  upon  only  in  1784,  is  of  a  value 
which  has  not  been  sufficiently  appreciated.  Measured 
at  its  full  thickness  from  the  saddle  of  Zabrze  towards 
the  outcrop,  it  is  stated  to  contain  no  less  than  333 
feet  of  coal  in  seams  of  above  2J  feet  thick ;  whilst 
its  extent,  reaching  far  beyond  the  boundary  shown  ic 
maps,  is  difficult  of  limitation,  from  the  fact  of  the 


82 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


coal-rneasures  passing  beneath  newer  formations.  But 
whilst  the  total  mass  of  the  strata  appears  to  be  some 
10,000  feet  thick,  and  much  of  the  coal  may  therefore 
lie  at  unattainable  depths,  it  is  made  out  with  fair 
probability  that  this  repository  must  contain  an  avail- 
able quantity,  even  within  a  working  depth  already 
exceeded  elsewhere,  of  50,000  million  tons  of  coal ! 

The  structure  of  this  latter  coalfield  is  not  yet  so 
thoroughly  explored  as  to  give  certainty  to  calculations 
for  the  future,  but  the  surveys  of  men  distinguished 
no  less  as  miners  than  as  geologists,  Yon  Oeynhausen, 
Yon  Carnall,  and  Krug  von  Nidda,  leave  little  doubt 
that  the  district  of  the  head-waters  of  the  Oder  may 
be  looked  to  as  a  source  of  supply  long  after  we  shall 
have  burned  out  our  last  ton  of  coal  from  most  of  the 
pits  of  our  Western  countries. 

With  the  steady  advance  in  production  of  the 
Prussian  coalfields  it  may  be  observed  that  the  most 
flourishing  is  that  of  Westphalia,  where  the  position 
is  eminently  favourable  to  cheap  transit,  and  where 
consumption  has  been  fostered  by  the  price  being 
lowered  considerably  below  the  standard  of  other 
Continental  producers. 

The  following  table  exhibits  the  quantities  raised 
from  the  several  districts  of  Prussia  during  the  years 
1863  and  1864— 


Official  centre. 

1863. 

1864. 

Coals. 

Brown 
Coal. 

Total. 

Coals. 

Brown 
Coal. 

Total. 

Breslau  (Silesia)  
Halle  (Pr.  Saxony)  
Dortmund  (Westphalia) 
Bonn  (Saarbriicken)  ... 

Tons. 
4,421,119 
52,971 
6,875,120 
2,955,364 

14,304,574 

Tons. 
188,807 
3,645,189 
1,631 
190,576 

Tons. 
4,609,926 
3,698,160 
6,876,751 
3,145,940 

Tons. 
4,923,417 
65,889 
8,146.433 
3,412,005 

Tons. 
223,172 
4,258,117 
1,344 

166,887 

1~649"520 

Tons. 
5,146,539 
4,324,006 
8,147,777 
3,578,892 

4,026,203 

18,330,777 

16.547,744 

21,197,214 

CONTINENTAL    EUROPEAN   COALFIELDS.  83 

The  brown-coal  or  lignite  of  Prussia,  as  well  as  of 
Nassau  and  several  other  North  German  territories, 
now  commands  a  great  sale  as  a  fuel,  well  enough 
suited  to  many  purposes.  The  shallow  basins  of 
tertiary  rocks — generally  sandstones — which  yield  it, 
are  scattered  in  patches  over  a  vast  extent  of  country, 
but  attain  special  importance  on  the  Lower  Khine,  in 
the  Westerwald,  in  the  Wetterau,  on  the  River  Elbe, 
and  in  the  Thuringian  district. 

The  coalfields  of  SAXONY,  although  locally  important, 
and  interesting  as  having  been  geologically  well  explored 
by  Naumann,  Von  Gotta,  Geinitz  and  Yon  Gutbier, 
are  not  likely  to  exercise  much  influence  on  European 
production.  That  of  Zwickau  was  worked  at  a  very 
early  date,  and  being  found  to  extend  beneath  the 
New  Red  sandstone,  offers  a  good  magazine  for  future 
supply.  Where  best  developed  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Mulde,  it  exhibits  9  seams,  with  96  feet  of  coal. 

From  the  careful  examination  of  the  coal  plants, 
instituted  by  the  Saxon  geologists,  it  is  shown  that 
whilst  the  undermost  seams  of  Silesia,  the  culm  series, 
may  be  termed  Lycopodiaceous  or  Sagenaria  coal,  the 
lower  seams  of  Zwickau  are  chiefly  of  SigillaricB^ 
forming  pech-kohle  or  pitch-coal ;  that  next  above  the 
Sigillaria  zone  comes  the  Calamite  coal,  principally 
shown  in  the  Russ-kohle  seam,  which  attains  locally  a 
thickness  of  22  feet  6  inches.  Above  this  occurs  the 
Annularia  zone,  and  lastly,  including  the  uppermost 
seams,  the  Fern  zone.* 

The  coalfields  of  Haynichen,  and  of  Potschappel 

*  The  Flora  of  our  coalfields  of  Gloucestershire  aad  Somersetshire 
offers,  I  think,  a  parallel  to  the  above ;  but  its  details  need  closer 
examination. 


84  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

are  of  far  smaller  note,  but  the  position  of  the  latter, 
near  Dresden  and  the  silver  mines  of  Freiberg,  gives 
it  a  special  value.  On  the  whole,  this  little  kingdom 
produced  in  1863,  of  coal  and  brown-coal  together, 
2,331,083  tons;  the  true  coal  being  1,902,467  tons, 
raised  from  88  pits,  by  12,000  workpeople.* 

AUSTRIA. — The  large  amount  of  forest  still  existing 
in  many  parts  of  the  Austrian  monarchy  has  rendered 
coal  a  requirement  of  no  serious  importance  until 
within  the  last  few  years,  when  the  great  increase  of 
steam  navigation,  of  railways,  and  manufactures,  has 
given  impetus  to  the  production  of  every  kind  of  fossil 
fuel.  The  true  coal  formation  stretches  from  Lower 
Silesia  into  a  limited  district  of  Bohemia,  at  the  base  of 
the  Eiesengebirge  ;  and  that  of  Upper  Silesia  forms  a 
tract  of  considerable  importance  around  Mahrisch,  or 
Moravian  Ostrau,  where  it  is  largely  worked  by  Von 
Rothschild  and  others.  On  the  north-west  side  of 
Prague  the  coal-basins  of  Schlan  and  Rakonitz,  that 
of  Radnitz,  and  the  western  one  of  Pilsen,  extending 
in  the  aggregate  over  some  600  square  miles,  are  all 
being  rapidly  opened ;  but  no  less  remarkable  are  the 
strikingly  thick  seams  of  brown-coal  (sometimes  from 
30  to  50  feet)  found  in  the  flat  country  of  Elnbogen, 
Bilin,  Commotau,  &c.,  and  largely  shipped  on  the  Elbe. 

*  The  rapid  increase  of  production  in  Saxony,  especially  since  the 
year  1830,  will  be  appreciated  from  the  statement  of  annual  raisings  at 
intervals  of  ten  years : — 

Year.  Saxon  scheffel,  nearly  =  4  cwts. 

1790 30,800 

1800 62,000 

1820 65,000 

1830 165,000 

1840 780,000 

..  .  .       1850 4,200,000 

1860  ..   .   .   .   .  7,874,000 


CONTINENTAL   EUROPEAN   COALFIELDS.  85 

The  Austrian  States  raise  in  the  year  above  four 
millions  of  tons,  of  which  nearly  the  half  is  brown- 
coal,  but  some  of  the  varieties  of  the  latter  are  so  like 
good  bituminous  samples  of  the  older  coal  that  I  have 
seen  one  of  our  most  experienced  Newcastle  pit-men 
entirely  at  fault  in  judging  of  them.  A  very  superior 
quality  occurs  at  Fiinfkirchen  in  Southern  Hungary, 
and  at  Steuerdorf  and  some  other  localities  in  the 
Bannat,  where  it  needs  an  examination  of  the  fossils 
in  the  shales  to  convince  you  that  they  are  in  the 
Lias  formation.  The  tertiary  brown-coals  of  Hungary 
and  in  the  Austrian  Alps,  especially  in  Styria  and 
Carinthia,  are  not  only  of  a  very  useful  character,  but 
occur  in  seams  which  in  some  instances  attain  the 
surprising  thicknesses  of  50,  70,  and  even  120  feet. 

SPAIN. — Although  the  Mediterranean  countries  are 
generally  devoid  of  true  coal,  exhibiting  only  here 
and  there  deposits  of  lignite  of  no  great  importance, 
the  Spanish  peninsula  presents  a  notable  exception, 
boasting  a  large  coal-field  of  numerous  seams  super- 
posed on  the  carboniferous  limestone  of  the  Asturias, 
and  two  others  apparently  of  great  though  unex- 
plored value  at  Belmez  and  at  Villa  Nueva,  near 
Cordova.  But  no  great  development  can  be  expected 
whilst  the  means  of  communication  remain  so  bad 
that  the  habitual  transport  of  the  produce  of  the 
collieries  is  effected  on  donkey-back. 

RUSSIA.  — It  is  no  matter  of  wonder  if,  in  this  most 
extensive  of  European  countries,  the  abundance  of 
forest,  and  the  scantiness  of  population,  have  retarded 
exploration  for  coal.  But  the  researches  of  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison  and  his  associates,  Count  Key- 
serling  and  M.  de  Verneuil,  have  proved  the  existence 


86  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

of  a  gigantic  extension  of  lower  carboniferous  rocks, 
ranging  along  the  flanks  of  the  Ural  Mountains,  over  a 
length  of  about  a  thousand  miles.  It  is  only  here  and 
there  that  any  coal-seams  have  been  proved  to  exist ; 
but,  although  much  interrupted,  they  are  distinctly 
shown  to  occur  on  both  sides  of  the  great  dividing  chain. 

These  authors  have  attached  especial  importance  to 
the  coal-field  of  the  Donetz,  between  the  Don  and  the 
Dnieper,  near  the  northern  corner  of  the  Sea  of  Azof; 
where  the  middle  carboniferous  limestones  contain  a 
number  of  workable  coal-seams — not  remarkable  for 
goodness  of  quality — over  an  area  of  about  11,000 
square  miles.  At  the  collieries  of  Lissitchia  Balka, 
900  feet  of  measures  exhibited  several  seams,  giving 
an  aggregate  of  30  feet  of  coal,  and  50  feet  of  beds  of 
limestone  with  marine  fossils. 

Le  Play  states  that  he  found  225  outcrops  with 
above  400  feet  of  coal ;  Prof.  Helmersen  more  recently 
(1864)  asserts  the  existence  of  nearly  400  seams;* 
and  as  the  northern  side  of  the  field  is  covered  by  the 
cretaceous  rocks,  and  coal-measures  have  been  already 
proved  beneath  them,  it  appears  probable  that  there  is 
here  a  vast  development  of  the  older  coals,  of  which 
we  have  notable  examples  at  home,  in  Northumberland 
and  in  Scotland. 

The  researches  of  Auerbach  and  Trautschold  on 
the  coals  of  central  Russia,  published  in  1860,  describe 
a  well-marked  coalfield  in  the  Governments  of  Tula  and 
Kaluga,  with  an  area  of  above  13,000  square  miles. 

It  appears  doubtful  whether  any  seams  of  the  ordi- 
nary upper  coal  have  yet  been  found  ;  but  should  such 
be  discovered  to  extend  beneath  the  overlying  Permian 

*  Vide  Quart.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc.,  vol.  xx. 


COAL    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.  87 

strata,  it  seems  not  improbable  that  Russia  may  one 
day  be  shown  to  possess  stores  of  coal,  in  some  degree 
commensurate  with  the  magnitude  of  her  territorial 
proportions. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COAL   OF   NORTH  AMERICA. 

SOUTH  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  great  chain  of  lakes 
an  astonishing  proportion  of  the  surface  of  the  North- 
American  continent  is  occupied  by  the  carboniferous 
formation ;  and  if  we  merely  compare  the  coal-areas  of 
the  New  World  with  those  of  the  Old,  as  indicated  in 
geological  maps,  we  should  conclude  that  the  total  extent 
of  the  deposits  of  Europe  stand,  as  against  those  of 
America,  in  the  humble  ratio  of  1  to  21.  But  an 
important  fallacy  is  involved  in  these  comparisons, 
inasmuch  as  the  position  of  the  American  coal  strata, 
with  respect  to  the  under  and  overlying  rocks,  is  such 
as  to  exhibit  their  entire  area  (in  the  midst  of  which 
also  large  tracts  are  barren),  whilst  many  most  valu- 
able portions  of  the  European  coalfields  are  covered  by 
newer  formations ;  and  there  seems  reason  to  doubt 
whether  in  the  former  there  ever  occur  such  great 
accumulations  of  coal  as  distinguish  some  of  the  fields 
of  the  latter. 

In  the  British  colonies,  NEW  BRUNSWICK  and  NOVA 
SCOTIA  are  especially  noticeable  for  a  great  thickness  of 
carboniferous  strata,  which  have  been  already  explored 
by  Prof.  Dawson  and  Mr.  R.  Brown.  The  number  of 
seams  is  comparatively  small ;  but  it  is  interesting  to 


88  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

observe  that  the  plants  found  in  or  near  them  belong 
to  the  same  genera,  and  often  to  the  same  species,  as 
those  of  the  coals  of  Europe. 

The  Cumberland  coalfield,  occupying  a  tract  which 
rises  towards  the  Cobequid  hills,  exhibits  along  the 
shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  at  the  Joggins,  an  un- 
rivalled natural  exposure  of  strata,  which  Sir  W.  Logan 
has  measured  to  be  upwards  of  14,000  feet  thick.  But 
although  70  seams  of  coal  are  included,  very  few  of 
them,  and  those  only  thin,  are  found  of  workable 
dimensions.  Near  Amherst,  the  productive  division 
is  stated  by  Dawson  to  be  2,800  feet  thick,  with  seven 
seams  of  from  1£  to  3  feet  thick ;  giving  a  total 
amount  of  not  more  than  16  feet  of  actual  coal. 

A  remarkable  contrast  to  this  state  of  things  exists 
in  a  limited  district  at  Pictou,  where,  in  a  much  smaller 
bulk  of  measures,  there  occur  5  or  6  good  seams,  the  most 
noticeable  of  which  is  the  Pictou  main  coal,  no  less 
than  37J  feet  in  thickness,  inclusive  of  some  bands  of 
shale  and  ironstone. 

In  the  northern  and  central  parts  of  Cape  Breton, 
around  the  town  of  Sydney,  another  coalfield,  of  con- 
siderable economic  value,  forms,  according  to  Mr. 
Brown,  one  extremity  of  a  great  coal  region,  the  main 
body  of  which  extends  under  the  sea  towards  New- 
foundland. The  same  practical  author  estimates  the 
productive  measures  as  occupying  250  square  miles, 
and  as  possessing  a  thickness  of  10,000  feet.  A  fine 
natural  section,  on  the  north-west  side  of  Sydney  Har- 
bour, shows  a  total  of  1,860  feet  of  measures,  with  34 
seams  of  coal,  but  four  only  among  them  are  workable, 
each  from  4  feet  to  6  feet  9  inches.  The  excellent 
papers  by  the  two  above-named  authors,  in  the  Quar- 


COAL   OF   NORTH    AMERICA.  89 

terly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London, 
contain  most  valuable  contributions  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  plants  and  animals  of  the  coal.  The  quantity 
raised  and  sold  in  the  province,  during  the  year  ending 
the  30th  September,  1865,  was  651,256  tons. 

The  extensive  coal-fields  of  the  UNITED  STATES  are 
evidently,  from  their  character  and  positions,  but  the 
huge  remnants  of  a  vast  coal  area,  which  once  extended 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  Kansas 
and  the  frontiers  of  Mexico.  Although  they  may  be 
separated  from  one  another  by  gaps  of  many  miles  in 
width,  the  intermediate  space  is  occupied  by  the  same 
floor  of  lower  rock  on  which  the  coal-measures  rest ; 
and  the  productive  portion  of  the  strata  is  preserved  in 
the  several  basins,  by  occupying  the  depressions  of  the 
undulated  flexures  to  which  the  entire  mass  has  been 
subjected.  Most  violent  on  the  east,  along  the  line  of 
the  Alleghanies,  these  foldings  become  more  and  more 
gentle  westward,  so  that  in  the  great  regions  of  the 
Ohio  and  the  Missouri  the  inclination  of  the  beds  is 
very  small,  and  their  unbroken  extent  proportionally 
great.  Coupled  with  this  fact,  moreover,  it  is  found 
that  the  character  of  the  coal  changes :  bituminous  and 
caking  in  the  broad  flat  areas,  it  becomes  more  and 
more  dense  when  affected  by  the  contortions  of  the 
Appalachian  chain,  until,  in  the  parallel  synclinal 
deposits  of  Pennsylvania,  it  becomes  a  pure  an- 
thracite. 

Prof.  Rogers,  in  his  elaborate  "  Geology  of  Penn- 
sylvania/' dwells  upon  another  broad  feature  of  general 
interest.  The  beds  of  conglomerate  (millstone-grit) 
and  sandstone,  which  occur  in  great  thickness,  and  of 


90  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

coarse  grain,  on  the  east,  gradually  thin  away  and 
become  finer  as  they  approach  the  west;  whilst  the 
slight  traces  of  limestone,  associated  with  the  coal- 
measures  in  Pennsylvania,  become  more  and  more 
important  as  they  reach  the  successive  western  dis- 
tricts, until  beds,  that  in  the  Potomac  basin  are  only 
10  feet,  become  expanded  at  Wheeling  to  200  feet  in 
thickness.  And  as  the  coarseness  of  grits  and  con- 
glomerates points  to  the  proximity  of  the  land  whence 
they  were  derived,  whilst  the  limestones  abound  in 
marine  organisms,  it  results  that  in  the  coal  period 
deep-sea  conditions  prevailed  in  the  west;  and  that  the 
mass  of  land,  from  which  the  sandy  constituents  of 
the  coal-measures  were  derived,  must  have  existed 
where  the  Atlantic  now  rolls  its  billows. 

The  coalfields  of  the  United  States,  estimated  by 
Rogers  to  occupy  an  area  of  196,850  square  miles,  are 
five  in  number  : — 

1.  The  Appalachian  coalfield,  forming  a  series  of 
producive  basins  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  extends  in  a  N.E. 
and  S.W.  direction  for  875  miles — an  unbroken  length, 
second  only  to  the  spread  of  the  lower  carboniferous 
rocks  along  the  western  flank  of  the  Ural. 

In  the  southernmost  and  deepest  or  the  Pottsville 
trough  of  anthracite,  it  appears  that  about  25  workable 
seams  have  been  proved,  in  other  parts  only  10  or  12 ; 
so  that,  although  a  maximum  thickness  of  207  feet  of 
coal  has  been  ascertained,  the  average  would  not  exceed 
70  feet. 

Some  of  the  lower  seams  of  the  anthracite  attain  ex- 
ceptionally the  thickness  of  from  10  to  40  feet,  probably 
in  consequence  of  the  local  disappearance  or  attenuation 


COAL    OF   NORTH   AMERICA.  91 

of  the  shales  and  grits  which  elsewhere  divide  from 
each  other  six  or  seven  different  seams.  At  Lehigh 
Summit  mine  the  great  coal-bed  is  a  magnificent  seam 
of  50  feet,  containing  30  feet  of  good  coal.* 

In  the  bituminous  field  of  western  Pennsylvania, 
seven  to  ten  workable  seams  f  are  found  in  a  thickness 
of  about  2,100  feet  of  strata,  and  the  same  number 
may  be  identified  in  north-west  Virginia;  whilst,  as  a 
proof  of  gradual  attenuation  westward,  it  seems  that  in 
the  western  coal-field  of  Missouri  and  Iowa  seven  or 
eight  workable  seams  at  the  utmost  are  included  in 
about  700  feet  of  strata. 

The  upper  series,  cropping  out  a  little  to  the  north 
and  north-west  of  Pittsburg,  is  based  upon  a  remark- 
able seam  of  coal,  named  after  that  town.  Prof. 
Rogers  has  traced  out,  con  amore,  the  prodigious  extent 
of  "  this  superb  bed,"  and  shows  how  incompatible 
with  any  drift  theory  are  its  persistency  and  regularity. 
With  a  thickness  of  8  feet  at  Pittsburg,  rising  to  12  or 
14  feet  in  the  south-eastern  basins,  and  dwindling  on 
the  Great  Kenawha  to  5  feet,  and  at  Guyandotte  to 
3  feet,  its  superficial  measurement  amounts  to  about 
14,000  square  miles  ;  and  if  we  include  some  detached 
basins,  which  indicate  its  former  extent  on  the  east,  it 
would  appear  that  the  Pittsburg  seam  formerly  (before 

*  To  guard  against  misapprehension,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  it 
appears  to  be  the  local  practice  to  name  a  seam  by  the  thickness  of  the 
coal  as  roughly  measured  in  the  driving  of  a  cross  cut ;  and  as  the  beds 
rise  at  various  angles,  the  amount  thus  taken  is  generally  much  in 
excess  of  the  true  thickness.  Thus  Mr.  Eogers  states  that  the  so-called 
"  39-foot  vein"  is  really  26  feet  horizontally  measured,  and  15  feet 
measured  in  an  European  way,  fairly  across  the  seam ;  and,  after  all, 
8  feet  only  are  of  saleable  coal. 

f  Near  Pittsburg,  above  the  P.  searn  of  10  feet,  is  the  Waynesbury 
coal,  0  feet,  and  below  it  5  seams  with  about  22  feet  of  coal. 


92  COAL  AND   COAL-MINING. 

denudation)  occupied  a  surface  of  no  less  than  34,000 
square  miles. 

Another  observable?  feature  of  the  upper  series  con- 
sists in  the  intercalation  of  bands  of  limestone  charged 
with  marine  fossils,  and  amounting  sometimes,  in  the 
aggregate,  to  150  feet  thick.  One  bed  especially, 
which  overlies  the  Pittsburg  coal,  has  been  remarked 
to  increase  from  2  feet  in  the  Cumberland  basin  to 
41  feet  at  Brownsville,  and  54  feet  at  Wheeling. 

Tne  aggregate  thickness  of  coal  contained  in  the 
measures,  generally,  of  the  Appalachian  coal-field,  is 
fkr  less  than  that  above  given  for  the  anthracite  region. 
Even  where  the  basin  is  deepest,  and  the  seams  are  15 
or  16  in  number,  it  scarcely  amounts  to  40  feet;  whence 
it  is  inferred  by  Rogers  that,  considering  the  great 
amount  of  denudation,  we  are  hardly  entitled  to  assume 
a  higher  general  average  for  the  whole  field  than  25 
feet. 

The  coal-trade  of  Pennsylvania  may  be  said  prac- 
tically to  have  commenced  with  the  first  shipment  in 
1820,  and  the  following  numbers,  given  in  the  report 
of  the  Philadelphia  Board  of  Trade,  show  the  increase 
in  quantity  sent  to  market  at  intervals  of  ten  years : — 

Year.  Tons. 

1820 365 

1830 174,374 

1840 841,584 

1850 3,177,537 

1860 8,151,569 

In  1864  the  production  amounted  to  10,035,249. 

2.  Illinois  and  Indiana  coalfield. — This  is  a  somewhat 
oval  tract,  lying  between  a  wide  anticlinal  exposure  of 
Devonian  and  Silurian  rocks  on  the  east,  and  the  saddle 
of  carboniferous  limestone  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  on. 


COAL   OF   NORTH  AMERICA.  93 

the  west,  having  a  total  area  of  some  51,000  square 
miles. 

Within  this  vast  district,  nearly  as  extensive  as  the 
Appalachian,  many  local  disturbances  and  undulations 
affect  the  strata,  and  confine  the  available  basins  within 
limits  which  are  not  yet  thoroughly  explored.  In 
western  Kentucky,  the  productive  coal-measures  are 
estimated  at  3,429  feet  thick ;  the  lower  series — includ- 
ing a  hard  sandstone,  called  the  Anvil  Bock,  at  the 
top — being  1,029  feet,  with  nine  workable  seams,  and 
the  upper  group  being  2,400  feet,  with  eight  workable 
seams  and  numerous  bands  of  limestone.  An  aggregate 
amount  of  40  to  50  feet  of  coal  has  here  been  proved ; 
but  since  all  explorers  agree  that  there  is  a  great 
amount  of  undulation  bringing  the  older  strata  to  the 
surface — the  flexures  running  N.W.  and  S.E.,  or  oppo- 
sitely to  those  of  the  Appalachian  range — no  satisfac- 
tory estimate  of  the  average  quantity  of  coal  can  yet  be 
obtained. 

3.  Iowa,  Missouri,  and  Arkansas. — In  this  enormous 
area,  where  upwards  of  73,000  square  miles  are  stated* 
to  be  occupied  by  coal-measures,  we  cannot  but  look 
upon  the  latter  as  being  of  a  degraded  type  ;  not  only 
the  stony  strata,  but  the  beds  of  coal  also  having 
greatly  dwindled,  both  in  number  and  thickness.  Prof. 
Swallow,  reporting  on  the  geology  of  Missouri,  esti- 
mates the  total  sections  of  the  coal-measures  on  that 
river  at  650  feet;  the  upper  portion  containing  thin 
beds  of  buff  limestone,  and  no  workable  coal ;  whilst 
the  lower  group,  between  Booneville  and  the  mouth  of 
the  La  Mine,  includes  six  coal  seams,  two  only  of 
which,  of  3  feet  and  6  feet  respectively,  are  workable. 

*  Eogers,  "  Geology  of  Pennsylvania,"  vol.  ii. 


94  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

Dr.  Dale  Owen,  in  reporting  on  Arkansas,  mentions 
the  occurrence  of  several  seams  of  coal  opened  upon  in 
different  counties  foi  smiths'  use ;  but  most  of  them 
are  only  a  few  inches  thick ;  one  alone,  the  Spadra 
seam,  being  3  feet.  They  appear  to  be  semi-anthracitic, 
and  to  be  intercalated  among  the  lower  members  of 
the  formation  ;  viz.,  with  the  millstone-grit,  and  close 
down  on  the  "Archimedes"  limestone.  Sundry  out- 
lying deposits  of  coal  and  cannel  promise  to  be  of  local 
value;  but  the  contents  of  the  field,  as  hitherto  de- 
scribed, are  so  utterly  disproportionate  to  the  magnifi- 
cent show  which  it  makes  in  a  geological  map,  that  in 
a  comparison  of  the  coal-measures  of  different  countries, 
the  mere  statement  of  its  area  is  of  no  value. 

4.  Coal-field  of  Texas. — This  extreme  south-western 
district,  estimated  at  3,000  square  miles  in  extent,  will 
be  looked  upon  by  the  geologist  as  originally  an  exten- 
sion of  its  larger  neighbour  in  Arkansas. 

5.  Michigan  coal-field. — A  very  considerable  extent  of 
land,  between  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan,  and  esti- 
mated at  12,000  to  15,000  square  miles,  is  occupied  by 
a  shallow  basin  of  gently  inclined  or  horizontal  coal- 
measures.     The  foundation  on  which  they  rest  appears 
to  be  carboniferous  limestone ;  frequently  containing, 
as  it  does  also  in  British  North  America,  deposits  of 
gypsum.     It  appears  singular  that  the  interior  of  this 
coal  district  is  imperfectly  known,  and  that  as  yet  only  a 
few  points  have  been  noticed  where  coal  crops  out.  From 
these  appearances  it  has  been  conjectured  that  but  very 
few  beds  of  workable  coal — probably  the  very  bottom  of 
the  series — exist  here ;  and  a  parallel  is  offered  to  the 
bad  plight  of  the  Irish  coalfields, — robbed  of  their  chief 
contents  by  Nature's  great  planing- tool  of  denudation. 


COAL    OF   NORTH   AMERICA.  95 

It  will  excite  no  surprise  that  in  a  country  of  which 
the  interior  is  so  scantily  peopled,  and  the  timber-land 
still  so  abundant,  the  coal-trade  should  be  but  of  recent 
origin,  and  the  quantity  of  fossil-fuel  brought  into  the 
market  from  native  mines  very  inferior  to  the  yield  of 
European  countries,  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the 
coal-rocks.  It  was  only  in  1820  that  the  first  modest 
instalment  of  365  tons  of  coal  was  sent  from  the  mines 
of  Pennsylvania ;  and  we  have  seen  that,  doubling  itself 
sometimes  in  five,  sometimes  in  ten  years,  the  amount 
has  increased  to  above  ten  millions  of  tons  in  1864. 
The  other  coal-producing  States  lag  far  behind,  as  will 
be  inferred  from  the  following  table,  showing  the  pro- 
duce for  the  year  ending  June,  1864,  from  the  returns 
made  to  the  Internal  Revenue  Department : — 


State. 
Rhode  Island 
Pennsylvania 

Tons. 
3,656 
.     12,698,412 
787,269 

District  Columbia  . 
Western  Virginia  . 

742 
398,815 
91,036 

66,187 

Ohio       

.       1,324,685 

Indiana  
Illinois  
Michigan        .... 

146,787 
925,293 
16,296 
50,204 

236 

California       .... 
Washington  Territory  . 

Total    . 

44,938 
7,754 

.     16,472,410 

Certain  of  the  "  disloyal "  States  are  here  omitted,  but 
Georgia,  Tennessee,  and  Alabama  would  only  appear 
for  comparatively  trifling  quantities. 


96  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

It  is  reported,*  too,  that  "  great  looseness  seems  to 
exist  in  the  compilation  of  figures  involving  large  sums, 
as  well  as  in  the  returns  required  to  be  made  by  the 
companies."  Whence  it  is  probable  that,  allowing 
for  local  consumption,  &c.,  the  amount  raised  in  the 
States  cannot  be  less  than  18  millions  of  tons. 

Years  ago  the  progress  of  the  Pennsylvanian  mines 
would  have  been  much  checked  but  for  the  duty  placed 
upon  the  importation  of  foreign  coals,  which  has  been 
varied  from  time  to  time,  and  is  now  1  dollar  25  cents 
per  ton  of  28  bushels.  The  distance  from  the  mines  to 
the  chief  centres  of  population,  along  the  sea-board,  is 
from  80  to  120  miles,  and  the  carriage  appears  to  cost 
nearly  as  much  as  the  value  of  the  coal  at  the  pit's 
mouth.  The  price  at  New  York  ranging  in  general 
from  22s.  to  24s.  per  ton,  and  occasionally  (as  in  1864) 
running  up  much  higher,  admits  an  importation  into 
the  States  of  above  half  a  million  tons  annually. 

The  great  wealth  in  fossil-fuel  of  North  America  does 
not  end  with  the  true  coalfields  above  described.  In 
eastern  Virginia,  a  tract  some  26  miles  long  by  4  to 
12  miles  wide,  contains  coal  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
Jurassic  group  (with  fossils  very  similar  to  those  of  our 
Whitby  beds  in  Yorkshire),  and  the  main  seam  is  stated 
to  attain  the  thickness  of  30  and  even  40  feet  of  good 
bituminous  coal.  The  measures  form  an  irregular 
basin,  resting  upon  granitic  rock,  and  the  seams  are 
much  disturbed,  and  subjected  to  thinning  where  they 
are  closely  superimposed  upon  their  primary  bed.f 

On  the  Pacific  side  of  the  continent,  lignites  of  good 

*  Reports  from  Her  Majesty's  Secretaries  of  Embassy  and  Lega- 
tion, 1866. 
f  See  Lyell,  Quart.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc.,  vol.  iii. 


COAL    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.  97 

quality,  and  often  in  seams  of  from  3  to  10  feet  thick, 
make  their  appearance  at  divers  localities.  They  appear 
to  belong  to  the  Cretaceous  series ;  to  which  age  Dr. 
Hector  has  satisfactorily  referred  the  lignites  of  the 
Saskatchewan  Eiver  and  of  Vancouver's  Island. 

The  geologists  and  statistical  writers  of  the  United 
States  have  constructed  diagrams  and  numerical  tables, 
which  get  handed  about  from  one  book  to  another,  and 
give,  as  I  think,  very  erroneous  ideas  of  the  over- 
whelming importance  of  the  American  coalfields  as 
compared  with  those  of  Europe.  It  may  be  true 
enough  that  a  vast  area  of  country  is  occupied  by  rocks 
of  the  carboniferous  period,  and  a  proclivity  to  big 
figures  may  be  gratified  by  calculating  the  tens  of 
thousands  of  square  miles  of  extent ;  but  it  should  be 
recollected  that  among  the  European  coal-fields  are 
several  in  which,  as  in  Westphalia  and  Silesia,  the 
greater  part  of  the  productive  ground  lies  covered  by  a 
cloak  of  newer  formations.  The  total  area  of  coal- 
measures  in  the  United  States  is  given  as  200,000 
square  miles,  whilst  that  of  Kussia  is  set  down  as  100 
miles ;  and  this  simple  "  unit  of  measure "  is  then 
applied  as  a  standard  showing  the  littleness  of  all  the 
European  fields.  But  if  the  same  method  of  calculation 
were  applied  to  Russia  that  has  been  acted  on  in  Iowa  and 
Missouri,  and  we  were  to  take  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  tracts  over  which  coal-bearing  rocks  have  been 
found  to  exist,  and  may  be  deemed  continuous,  that 
empire,  instead  of  figuring  as  a  petty  unit,  would 
run  the  States  a  hard  race  for  mere  extent  of  car- 
boniferous formation. 

On  passing,  then,  to  what  is  of  more  weight — the 
thickness  of  workable  coal — we  are  constrained  to  be- 

H 


98  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

lieve,  whilst  fully  recognising  the  colossal  value  of  the 
Appalachian  and  of  the  Illinois  and  Indiana  deposits, 
that  the  data  for  the  estimation  of  the  contents  of  the 
others  are  not  yet  satisfactory,  and  that  the  progress 
of  exploration  in  such  vast  tracts  will  show  many  an 
element  for  subtraction. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

COALFIELDS   OF  ASIA  AND  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  HEMISPHERE. 

ON  turning  our  gaze  eastward  from  Mediterranean 
Europe  to  the  Levant,  we  may  observe  the  continuation 
of  similar  characters  in  the  rare  occurrence  of  true 
carboniferous  strata,  and  in  the  frequent  exhibitions 
of  lignites  of  cretaceous  or  of  tertiary  age.  The  only 
remarkable  instance  of  the  former  which  we  know  in 
Western  Asia  is  the  coalfield  of  Eregli  on  the  south 
shore  of  the  Black  Sea,  a  district  which  was  urged 
into  some  little  activity  during  the  Crimean  war,  but 
which  appears  to  have  so  far  sunk  back  again  into 
the  old  sleepy  state  of  ill-management  as  not  even  to 
supply  the  limited  requirements  of  Constantinople  and 
the  other  towns  bordering  on  the  Euxine.  Every  now 
and  then  the  disclosure  of  something  black  cropping 
out  on  hill  or  river  side  leads  to  the  publication  of  a 
paragraph  which  makes  the  round  of  the  European 
newspapers,  and  tells  of  the  discovery  of  a  new  "  coal- 
mine," generally  of  "  inexhaustible  extent,"  and  "  quality 
equal  to  the  best  Newcastle  coal."  It  turns  out  to  be  an 
instance  of  the  patchy  distribution  of  the  lignites, 


COALFIELDS   OF   ASIA,    ETC.  99 

which  have  seldom  been  good  enough  to  command 
serious  attention;  although  in  one  case,  in  the  Lebanon, 
considerable  workings  were  carried  on  for  this  article 
during  the  occupation  of  Syria  by  Ibrahim  Pasha. 

In  India,  large  tracts  of  land,  especially  known 
about  the  Upper  Damoodah  and  in  Burdwan,  are 
occupied  by  a  coal-formation  which,  besides  its  extent, 
is  notable  for  very  peculiar  geological  features.  The 
active  missionaries,  Messrs.  Hislop  and  Hunter, 
described  to  the  Geological  Society  of  London,  in  1855, 
the  occurrence  of  plants  in  the  coal-bearing  sandstones, 
some  of  them  of  genera  which  might  be  taken  as 
common  to  the  coal-measures  of  Europe,  but  others, 
such  as  Zamites,  Taeniopteris,  Glossopteris,  Vertebraria, 
and  Trizygia,  which  indicate  a  Jurassic  age.  Some  of 
these  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  the  contents  of  our 
Oolitic  coal-beds  of  North  Yorkshire,  and  to  those  of 
Virginia,  and  the  parallel  is  rendered  stronger  by  the 
presence  of  remains  of  Lepidotus  and  jEchmodus, 
Jurassic  fish,  in  the  Kota  shales,  which  appear  to 
belong  to  the  same  series  as  the  Nagpur  plant-bearing 
beds. 

Messrs.  Blanford  and  others  of  the  geological  staff 
under  Professor  Oldham,  have  been  working  out  the 
relations  of  these  Eastern  coalfields ;  and  one  of  the 
latest  results  announced  is  that  Mr.  Medlicott  has  dis- 
covered, in  1865,  in  the  Assam  district,  south  of  the 
Brahmapootra,  several  workable  seams  of  coal  of  a 
better  quality  than  any  hitherto  found  in  India. 

Farther  to  the  north-east,  the  ingenious  and  closely- 
packed  natives  of  China  and  Japan  discovered  at  a 
very  early  period  the  value  of  the  fossil  fuel  which  in 
both  countries  exists  in  large  quantity.  Writing  of 

H2 


100 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


the  northern  part  of  China,  Marco  Polo  stated,  in 
describing  his  travels  between  1270  and  1290,  "  Through 
the  whole  province  of  -Cathay,  certain  black  stones  are 
dug  out  of  the  mountains,  which  put  into  the  fire, 
burn  like  wood,  and,  being  kindled,  preserve  fire  a  long 
time ;  and  if  they  be  kindled  in  the  evening,  they  keep 
fire  all  the  night ;  and  many  use  these  stones  because 
that  though  they  have  plenty  of  wood,  yet  there  is  such 
frequent  use  of  stoves  and  baths,  that  the  wood  could 
not  serve." 

There  appears  to  be  no  doubt  that  several  large  and 
rich  fields,  producing  coals  of  good  quality,  exist  in 
China ;  but  we  have  obtained  hitherto  only  meagre  and 
fragmentary  accounts  of  some  of  them  from  travellers 
unprepared  with  technical  knowledge.  On  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Yang-tse-kiang  coal  seams  crop  out  to 
the  surface  over  a  very  large  area,  and  are  worked  on  a 
small  scale  by  levels  driven  into  the  hills. 

In  the  prefecture  of  King-hua,  W.S.W.  of  Mngpo, 
and  near  the  town  of  E-u,  coal-pits  are  described  by 
the  Rev.  R.  Cobbold,  which  have  been  opened  upon 
seams  of  a  bright  non-bituminous  coal.  The  mines  are 
from  300  to  500  feet  deep,  sunk  in  lifts  of  40  to 
50  feet  at  a  time,  and  having  the  mineral  raised  by 
successive  windlasses  at  the  intermediate  stages. 

Notwithstanding  the  facilities  of  water  carriage 
existing  throughout  a  great  part  of  China,  it  is  manifest 
that  great  improvements  must  take  place  in  the  mining 
operations  before  these  stores  of  mineral  fuel  can  be 
made  fully  available  for  manufacturing  and  for  the 
requirements  of  the  steam  navigation  of  the  Eastern  seas. 

A  certain  amount  of  prejudice,  derived  no  doubt 
from  negative  evidence,  disinclines  us  to  believe  in  the 


COALFIELDS   OF    ASIA,    ET?Cy  ;  V 

existence  of  carboniferous  formations  within  the  tropics, 
and  the  discoveries  of  coaly  substances  hitherto  made 
in  the  warmer  regions  of  the  earth  have  generally 
tended  only  to  show  that  beds  of  lignitic  matter  were 
formed  even  in  these  latitudes  amid  some  of  the  later 
formations,  whilst  the  true  carboniferous  rocks  have 
not  yet  been  traced  within  many  degrees  of  the  equator. 
A  great  local  value  may  attach  to  these  coaly  lignites 
of  superior  quality  when  workable  in  certain  situations 
accessible  to  steam  vessels,  as  at  Labuan  and  elsewhere 
in  Borneo,*  and  even  on  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi. 

On  arriving  at  the  southern  latitude  of  Sydney,  in 
Australia,  we  meet  again  a  great  development  of  the 
carboniferous  system,  exercising  already  a  considerable 
influence  on  the  fortunes  of  our  rapidly  growing 
colonies.  Since  the  systematic  description  of  the  coal- 
bearing  beds  of  this  region  by  Count  de  Strzelecki,  in 
1845,  numerous  observations  upon  them  have  been 
contributed  by  Mr.  Beete  Jukes,  the  Rev.  W.  B.  Clarke, 
Mr.  Selwyn,  and  Mr.  W.  Keene,  which  leave  no  doubt 
as  to  the  palaeozoic  character  of  the  lower  part  of  a 
great  conformable  series  of  strata,  although  the  upper 
portion  presents  anomalies  reminding  us  much  more 
of  the  Indian  coalfields  than  of  anything  which  we 
possess  in  Europe. 

Mr.  Clarke  proposes  the  following  general  divisions — 

1.  Wianamatta  shales,  700  to  800  ft.  thick,->v 

2.  Hawkesbury  Rocks,   or   Sydney  Sand-        Upper  carboniferous, 

stone,  800  to  1,000  ft.  thick,  L     or  Permian  (Dana), 

3.  Upper  coal  measures,  with  the  coal-seams          Jurassic  (Me  Coy). 

of  Newcastle,  &c.,  5,000  ft.  thick,        J 
*.  Lower  carboniferous  rocks,  8,000  ft.  thick. 


See  Quart.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  96,  and  vol.  ix.,  p.  54. 


LG2     i          :  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


The  presence,  along  with  the  coal  seams,  of  such  plants 
as  two  species  of  Glossopteris,  Cyclopteris  angusti  folia, 
and  certain  species  of  Spkenopteris  and  Phyllotheca, 
gives  a  parallel  to  the  fossils  of  strata  more  recent  than 
the  European  carboniferous,  but  there  is  at  present  a 
difficulty  in  drawing  a  line  of  demarcation  between 
the  groups  No.  3  and  No.  4,  whilst  in  the  latter  both 
plants  and  shells  of  the  carboniferous  and  devonian 
series  are  abundant. 

Mr.  Keene,  the  Government  Examiner  of  Coalfields, 
states  that  he  recognises  eleven  distinct  seams,  which  are 
more  or  less  worked.  Several  of  these  are  from  4  to  6  feet 
thick.  The  Wallsend  seam,  worked  between  Minmi  and 
Newcastle  is  9  feet  of  good  coal ;  that  of  the  Agricultural 
Company's  Bore-hole  Colliery  is  9  feet;  and  one  which 
crops  out  near  Stroud,  on  the  same  company's  lands, 
is  as  much  as  30  feet,  including  sundry  partings  of 
shale  and  fire-clay.  On  the  Hunter  river,  for  a  distance 
of  fifteen  miles  up  from  Newcastle,  several  considerable 
collieries  are  worked,  and  even  thirty  miles  farther 
north,  at  Kix's  creek,  near  Singleton,  a  good  seam  has 
been  opened  upon.  South  of  Sydney,  about  sixty 
miles,  at  Bellambi  and  Wollongong,  shipments  are 
made  of  the  coal  obtained  from  workings  on  the  out- 
crops of  seams  of  very  regular  persistence  in  thickness. 

The  products  of  the  Australian  collieries  are  various 
in  character,  smith's,  household,  and  gas-coal  being 
obtained  from  different  pits,  and  a  large  amount  of 
steam  coal  of  very  serviceable  quality  being  regularly 
supplied  to  sea-going  vessels.  Several  beds  of  bi- 
tuminous shale  and  cannel,  which  occur  chiefly  in  the 
division  No.  3,  have  recently  attracted  much  attention 
as  sources  of  rock  oil.  Imitating  the  mother  country 


COALFIELDS    OF    ASIA,    ETC.  103 

not  only  in  the  names  of  its  seams  and  mining  localities) 
New  South  Wales  has  opened  out  a  considerable  foreign 
trade,  and  shipments  of  coal  have  long  been  made  to 
China,  India,  and  even  to  the  ports  of  California. 

It  is  not  our  object  in  this  chapter  to  do  more  than 
invite  attention  to  a  few  among  the  coal-bearing  forma- 
tions of  parts  of  the  world  distant  from  Europe,  which 
appear  to  promise  future  importance.  We  need  not 
refer,  except  in  passing,  to  those  minor  deposits  of 
lignite  or  of  true  coal  which  undoubtedly  may  be 
developed  and  acquire  a  local  value,  although  unable  to 
weigh  much  in  the  coal  trade  of  the  world.  Tasmania 
and  New  Zealand  come  under  this  category,  and  some 
of  the  lignites  of  the  latter  country  stand  high  for 
quality. 

Turning  farther  westward,  we  find  that  coal-beds 
exist  in  the  Falkland  Islands,  and  that  South  America 
promises  great  results — of  but  little  value  at  present, 
whilst  her  population  is  sparse  and  her  forest  lands  of 
enormous  extent.  Yery  interesting,  however,  is  the 
coalfield  of  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota,  in  New  Granada,  the 
fossils  of  which  prove  it  to  be  of  cretaceous  age.  Mr. 
David  Forbes  has  pointed  out  the  existence  of  true 
carboniferous  rocks  near  the  mountain  lake  of  Titicaca, 
situated  no  less  than  12,600  feet  above  the  sea;  and 
within  the  last  few  years  successive  notifications  have 
been  made  of  important  areas  of  true  coal  in  various 
parts  of  the  flourishing  empire  of  Brazil. 


104  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

CHAPTER  X. 

SEARCH  FOB  COAL  ;   BORING ;   AND   SINKING  OF   SHAFTS. 

A  VALUABLE  amount  of  light  may  be  throvm  upon  the 
character  of  a  coal  district  by  surface  researches,  unac- 
companied by  the  breaking  of  the  ground.  Quarries, 
roads,  protruding  rocks,  sea-cliffs,  ploughed  fields,  and 
water-courses,  will  all  yield  to  an  experienced  eye  their 
quantum  of  information.  Even  when,  as  in  parts  of 
Lancashire,  the  general  surface  is  occupied  by  a  thick 
cover  of  clay,  gravel,  &c.  (the  drift) ,  good  facts  may  be 
gleaned  in  the  channels  and  banks  of  the  brooks  which 
have  cut  their  way  down  to  the  harder  rock.  Now  and 
then  a  very  complete  view  of  the  raised  edges  of  a 
whole  series  of  strata  may  be  seen ;  as  in  the  cliffy 
shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  Nova  Scotia,  and  of 
Cape  Breton ;  whence  we  have  sections,  measured  by 
Sir  William  Logan  and  Mr.  R.  Brown,  embracing 
thousands  of  feet  of  strata.  In  the  county  of  Carlow, 
Ireland,  in  South  Wales,  and  in  the  North  of  England, 
there  are  frequent  opportunities  of  thus  obtaining  a 
measurable  profile  of  some  of  the  lower  coal-measures. 
In  this  kind  of  search  we  must  learn  to  avoid  being 
deceived  by  vain  resemblances.  Especially  dangerous 
is  it  to  trust  to  mere  outward  likeness  in  the  shales  or 
"  metals"  to  those  of  the  coal  series  :  such  may  belong 
to  the  Silurian,  to  the  Lias,  or  to  other  formations. 
If  true  carboniferous  shales,  we  ought  to  be  able  to 
find  in  them  some  of  the  fossils  proper  to  the  period, 
before  pronouncing  on  them.  Still  more  irrelevant 
is  it  to  form  conclusions  on  the  presence  of  coal- 


SEARCH   FOR   COAL,    ETC.  105 

measures  because  the  surface  is  covered  with  a  CO!Q 
clay,  or  because  you  have  limestone  on  one  side  of 
your  field  of  action,  or  because  ironstones  have  been 
found  about  the  place.  Each  of  these  circumstances 
may  be  true  of  a  coalfield,  but  is  not  necessarily  so  :  each 
may  also  be  true  of  many  other  formations,  and  would 
require  corroboration  by  other  characters.  The  pre- 
sence of  a  spring  of  water  depositing  ochreous  oxide 
of  iron  is  often  noticeable  near  the  out-crop  of  a  coal- 
seam,  but  the  mineralogist  will  recollect  that,  since 
this  appearance  is  derived  simply  from  the  decompo- 
sition of  iron  pyrites,  it  may  occur  in  many  other 
classes  of  rock  in  which  that  common  mineral  has  been 
accumulated.  Not  even  the  underclay,  with  its  matted, 
carbonised  roots,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the  nearness 
of  a  bed  of  coal,  for  such  a  material  has  sometimes  been 
deposited,  and  either  the  conditions  for  the  abundant 
growth  of  the  coal-plants  have  not  supervened,  or  the 
coal  may  have  been  formed,  and  subsequently  been 
removed  by  natural  denudatory  action. 

In  these  cases,  a  pick  and  shovel  may  sometimes 
lend  useful  aid ;  but  more  commonly  it  becomes  ad- 
visable to  resort  to  "boring,"  either  for  the  actual 
testing  of  a  particular  spot,  or  for  filling  up  the  gaps 
between  portions  which  may  be  tolerably  well  deter- 
mined at  the  surface. 

This  subject  has  been  already  treated  in  one  of  the 
Rudimentary  Treatises  by  Mr.  Swindell,  and  we  shall 
therefore  touch  on  it  but  briefly 

The  ordinary  mode  of  boring  through  the  alternating 
rocks  overlaying  or  forming  a  coalfield  is  by  means 
of  a  steeled  chisel,  or  bit,  of  various  form,  screwed  to 
rods  of  the  best  bar-iron,  about  an  inch  thick,  screw- 


106  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

jointed  at  intervals  of  from  6  to  18  feet.  At  the  spot 
selected  for  the  bore-hole,  it  is  usual  either  to  erect  a 
wooden-staging,  or  to  sink  a  preliminary  pit  to  a  few 
feet  or  yards  in  depth,  so  that  a  greater  length  of  rods 
may  be  drawn  at  once,  and  part  of  the  tedious  delay  of 
screwing  and  unscrewing  may  be  avoided.  To  aid  in 
this  object,  too,  a  tall  triangle,  derrick,  or  shear-legs, 
with  sheave,  should  be  erected ;  within  which  the  rods 
may  be  drawn  and  lowered  by  the  agency  of  a  windlass. 
In  order  to  lift  the  rods  and  cutter  a  few  inches  for 
each  stroke  or  blow,  either  a  spring-pole  may  be  used, 
fastened  down  at  the  but-end,  and  with  the  rods  sus- 
pended at  the  thin  extremity;  or  a  windlass,  round 
which  a  rope  coming  from  the  rods  is  passed  with 
two  or  three  turns,  whilst  a  man  holds  the  "  slack," 
and  when  the  cutter  is  raised  to  a  sufficient  height  by 
the  men  at  the  windlass,  slips  the  rope  to  allow  the 
rod  to  fall.  Meanwhile  a  rotatory  motion  is  given  to 
the  rods  at  each  stroke  by  the  master  borer  and  his 
assistant,  holding  a  cross-bar  which  clutches  the  upper 
rods  a  little  above  the  surface.  The  chisel  thus  at  each 
blow  cuts  the  ground  in  a  fresh  position,  and  when  this 
action  has  been  continued  long  enough,  the  rods  are 
withdrawn,  by  unscrewing  length  after  length,  and  the 
'•  sludger,"  an  iron  tube  of  6  feet  long,  with  a  valve  in 
the  bottom,  is  lowered  by  a  rope,  and  being  dropped 
heavily  several  times  to  the  bottom  of  the  hole,  soon 
gets  filled  with  debris,  which  being  then  brought  to 
the  top  are  carefully  examined,  whilst  the  rods  are 
again  lowered,  to  go  on  with  the  pounding  action. 

In  order  to  reduce  the  time  and  expense  of  this 
mode  of  boring,  the  Chinese  system  of  boring  by  a 
rope  instead  of  rigid  rods,  has  been  a  good  deal 


BORING    FOR    COAL,    ETC.  107 

employed  of  late  years ;  but  it  is  open  to  the  objection 
of  sometimes  making  the  hole  untrue,  and  more  often 
j  of  ending  in  the  catastrophe  of  a  broken  rope,  and  of 
the  heavy  iron  cylindrical  cutting-tool  remaining  at  the 
bottom  of  the  bore-hole. 

Exploring  bore-holes  are  generally  from  3  to  5  inches 
diameter,  and  may  be  guarded  against  many  of  the 
accidents  to  which  they  are  liable,  by  being  lined  with 
pipes  of  sheet-iron,  added  on  from  above  as  the  hole 
increases  in  depth. 

When  larger  diameters  are  to  be  employed,  and 
greater  depths  than  300  or  400  feet  attained,  the 
serious  difficulties  which  supervene  are  met  by  various 
contrivances,  such  as  the  hollow  rods  first  successfully 
used  by  (Eynhausen,  wooden  rods  with  iron  connections, 
the  free-falling  cutter  first  devised  by  Kind,  &c. ;  but  as 
these  relate  chiefly  to  the  boring  of  Artesian  wells  for 
water  or  for  brine,  we  need  but  mention  them  here. 

We  may,  however,  cite  as,  perhaps,  the  most  remark- 
able borehole  yet  accomplished,  one  which  has  not  long 
since  been  completed  by  Herr  Kind,  for  exploring  pur- 
poses in  the  coalfield  of  Creusot,  in  France,  to  the  depth 
of  920  metres,  or  3,017  feet  English. 

Steam-power  has  for  these  purposes  been  largely 
employed  of  late  years.  Messrs.  Mather  and  Platt 
have  made  remarkable  borings  by  their  ingenious 
cutter  worked  with  a  flat  wire  rope ;  and  several  patents 
have  been  taken  out  in  England  and  Scotland  for 
different  means  of  applying  this  more  economical 
power,  whilst  Messrs.  Kind,  Degousee,  and  Mulot  have 
severally  availed  themselves  of  it  in  their  great  works 
in  Germany,  France,  and  Belgium. 

At  some  mines  a  set  of  boring-rods  is  specially  kept 


108  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

for  exploratory  work,  and  for  occasional  operations  to 
assist  the  working  of  the  mines ;  whilst  in  many  of  our 
districts   the  work  is   performed  under  contract,  by 
borers  who  devote  themselves  to  this  particular  task. 
The  tariff  for  boring  at  Newcastle  was,  in  1854, 

for  the  first  five  fathoms     7s.  6d.  per  fathom. 
„      second        „          15s.  Qd.        „ 
„      third          .„     £1   2s.  6d.         „ 

and  so  on ;  irrespective  of  charges  for  carriage,  fixing 
apparatus,  and  boring  through  rocks  of  unusual  hard- 
ness, as  whin,  &c.  For  deeper  bore-holes,  i.e.,  from 
1,000  to  2,000  feet,  it  is  difficult  to  give  an  approxi- 
mate idea  of  the  expense ;  but  thousands  of  pounds 
are  soon  involved,  and  cases  might  be  quoted  of  such 
operations  in  this  country  where  the  cost  has  been 
at  the  end  no  less  than  £9  and  even  £12  per  foot ! 

A  patent  was  taken  out  in  1844  by  Beart,  and  a 
similar  plan  practised  by  Fauvelle  in  France,  for 
hastening  the  work  by  employing  a  tube  as  the  boring- 
rod.  Down  this  tube  a  stream  of  water  was  made  to 
flow,  in  sufficient  volume  to  carry  off  and  bring  up, 
round  the  circumference  of  the  bore-hole,  the  debris 
made  by  the  cutting-tool.  Holes  of  moderate  depth, 
in.  easy  ground,  were  put  down  by  this  means  with 
unexampled  rapidity. 

A  great  advantage  which  boring  possesses  over  the 
ordinary  sinking  of  a  shaft  is  that  the  operation  can  be 
carried  on  without  the  necessity  of  pumping  out  the 
water,  and  the  more  rapidly  indeed  the  greater  the  influx 
of  water.  In  order  to  combine  this  source  of  economy 
with  the  mode  of  gaining  personal  access  to  the  coal, 
shafts  of  from  3  to  15  feet  diameter  have  in  Westphalia 


SINKING    OF    SHAFTS.  109 

been  sunk  by  gigantic  boring  apparatus  ;  successfully, 
so  far  as  related  to  the  total  cost,  and  forming  a  process 
applicable  with  great  advantage  if  only  a  suitable  lining 
or  tubbing  can  be  inserted,  and  a  water-tight  junction 
effected  below  the  points  of  influx  of  water. 

The  shafts  by  which  all  collieries  are  opened  and 
worked,  except  the  few  which,  in  hilly  districts  have 
the  advantage  of  free  drainage,  are  generally  circular 
in  England,  though  many  elliptical  and  a  few  rectangular 
ones  may  be  seen  in  South  Wales,  and  the  latter  form 
is  common  on  the  Continent.  In  Belgium  a  polygon 
of  10,  12,  or  even  16  sides  is  a  frequent  form,  and 
is  adopted,  like  our  circular  ones,  for  the  better  resist- 
ance, by  aid  of  the  special  kind  of  lining  employed, 
to  the  pressure  exerted  upon  it  from  the  rock  around, 

A  very  few  only  can  now  be  seen  of  the  little  old 
pits,  like  draw-wells,  of  4^-  feet  in  diameter;  and 
whilst  for  ordinary  purposes  they  are  now  commonly 
8  or  10  feet  diameter  in  the  clear,  they  attain,  when 
intended  for  an  important  upcast,  or  for  a  large  get  of 
coal,  to  as  much  as  16  feet  diameter.* 

The  actual  sinking,  when  in  ordinary  coal-measures, 
is  effected  by  the  heavy  pick,  called  a  hack,  by  hammers 
and  wedges,  and  by  blasting  with  powder ;  whilst  the 
broken  ground  is  raised  to  the  surface  at  first  by  a 
common  windlass  or  jack-roll ;  then,  as  the  work  gets 
deeper,  by  a  gin  or  horse- whim,  and  afterwards  by  a 
steam-engine,  often  a  temporary  one  only,  to  be  re- 
placed, when  the  pit  is  down,  by  the  regular  winding- 
engine. 

But  when  the  measures  are  covered  by  other  and 

*  Elliptical  pits  have  been  sunk  in  South  Wales  and  at  Chatelinaux, 
in  Belgium,  as  much  as  18  and  20  feet  in  length. 


110  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

more  absorbent  strata,  saturated  with  water,  the  win- 
ning of  a  colliery  becomes  a  most  serious  undertaking, 
tasking  the  energies*  of  the  best  men,  and  sometimes 
collapsing  after  a  ruinous  outlay. 

Examples  of  these  difficulties  are  afforded  by  surface 
beds  of  sand  and  gravel,  by  the  well-known  red  sand 
under  the  magnesian  limestone,  through  which  so 
many  of  the  North-country  pits  have  been  sunk,  and 
by  the  terrains  marts  encountered  by  the  colliers  of 
Mons  and  Valenciennes. 

As  long  as  the  coal  seams  are  accessible  at  small 
depths,  managers  are  liberal  in  the  use  of  shafts  ; 
indeed  there  are  districts  where  the  great  number  of 
old  shallow  pits  are  a  positive  nuisance  to  the  modern 
workers.  But  as  expenses  increase  with  depth,  it 
becomes  an  object  to  work  a  larger  area  from  one 
establishment  of  pits,  and  for  this  purpose  it  is  worth 
while  to  improve  ventilation  and  the  underground 
carriage,  so  that  shafts  at  frequent  intervals  shall  not 
be  needed.  Even  when  flying  along  in  a  railway  train 
you  may  remark  the  difference;  how  in  parts  of 
Staffordshire  you  will  see  the  ground  riddled  with 
crowds  of  pits,  whilst  in  Durham  and  Northumberland 
a  single  "plant"  of  pits  and  engines  will  work  the 
ground  for  a  mile  or  two  on  each  side. 

The  cost  in  extreme  cases  being  some  £60,000  for  a 
pit  of  near  upon  300  fathoms  in  depth,  and  being  stated 
once  or  twice  to  have  amounted  to  near  £100,000, 
there  is  a  great  temptation  to  make  this  one  suffice ; 
and  by  means  of  brattices  or  divisions  (of  wood,  or  brick, 
or  stone),  wonderfully  good  mining  has  been  done  in 
the  Northern  coalfield  with  a  single  shaft.  But  since 
the  sad  catastrophe  at  Hartley,  which  resulted  from  a 


LINING   OF    SHAFTS.  Ill 

concatenation  of  omissions  and  misfortunes,  an  Act  of 
Parliament  requires  that  where  there  is  no  second  outlet 
another  shaft  shall  within  a  limited  period  be  sunk. 
Many  of  the  larger  works,  however,  are  able  to  apply 
a  special  shaft  to  the  ventilation  as  an  upcast,  whilst  at 
others  coal  will  be  drawn,  and  at  one  of  them  the 
pumps  worked. 

When  the  measures  through  which  the  pit  is  sunk 
consist  of  stony  rock,  they  are  often  allowed  to  stand 
open,  but  when  shales  preponderate,  and  in  all  cases 
where  much  traffic  is  carried  on,  the  pit  would  become 
a  dangerous  thoroughfare,  and  has  to  be  walled  with 
brick  or  stone,  to  which  in  some  cases,  as  against 
the  influx  of  water,  wood  or  cast  iron  may  be  preferred. 

In  fragile  ground  the  commencement  is  to  secure  the 
shaft  by  temporary  timber.  Curbs  or  cribs,  rings  formed 
of  segments  of  wood,  are  prepared,  to  fit  the  dimensions 
of  the  shaft ;  and,  having  their  joints  in  the  direction 
of  the  radii  of  the  circle,  will  when  4,  5,  or  6  inches 
square,  resist  a  heavy  pressure  from  the  sides.  They 
are  supported  at  intervals  generally  of  about  3  feet, 
by  a  few  upright  props,  and  are,  as  it  were,  hung  to- 
gether by  thin  planks,  termed  stringing  deals,  which  are 
nailed  against  them,  whilst  the  whole  structure  may 
be  temporarily  suspended,  if  need  be,  by  attaching 
it  to  a  couple  of  stout  balks  laid  across  the  top  of 
the  shaft.  Behind  the  cribs  a  backing  is  formed  by 
driving  down  planks  of  some  6  feet  long,  close  together 
in  bad  ground,  or  at  small  intervals  in  favourable  rock. 
When  a  firm  foundation  of  stone  or  bind  has  been 
reached,  a  bed  is  prepared  with  hacks  or  chisels  to 
receive  a  broader  curb  of  either  wood  or  cast  iron,  and  on 
this  a  wall  of  brick-work  is  built  up  to  the  surface,  or 


112 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


above  it  when  tip-room  is  required.     The  pit  is  then 
recommenced,  of  smaller  diameter  at  first,  afterwards 

opened  to  its  former  dimen- 
sions, and  at  a  suitable  place 
a  fresh  length  of  walling  is 
begun,  and  carried  upwards 
till  by  careful  adjustment  it 
is  made  to  coincide  with  the 
upper  length  and  to  join  up 
to  its  curb.  In  some  few 
cases,  where  soft  material 
has  to  be  passed  through, 
the  walling  has  been  built 
at  the  surface,  held  together 
with  tie-rods  or  clamping 
bars,  and  gradually  sunk 
downwards  by  cautiously  re- 
moving the  ground  from 
beneath  the  curbs  upon  which 
it  is  constructed.  But  where 
actual  quicksand  occupies 
the  surface,  various  other 
contrivances  have  to  be  em- 
ployed. The  method  of  piling 
is  to  drive  down  iron-shod 
3 -inch  battens  of  12  or  14  feet 
in  length,  supported  by  curbs,  and  forming  a  circle  as 
much  larger  than  the  ultimate  size  of  the  shaft  as  to 
leave  room  for  successive  inner  circles  of  piles  down 
to  the  depth  at  which  solid  ground  is  expected  to  be 
found.  The  sand  is  of  course  excavated  in  proportion 
as  it  is  practicable  to  drive  down  the  piles;  and  at 
length,  when  a  firm  foundation  is  reached,  a  broad 


Fig.  12. 
Scale,  1  inch  to  10  feet. 

aJ>,cd.  Curbs  of  the  timbering. 

a  c,  b  d.  Punch  props. 

a  e.  Backing  planks,  shown  in  section, 

but  otherwise  omitted  for  clearness. 

/  ff.  Stringing  deal. 
h  k.  Curb  for  the  walling, 


LINING    OF   SHAFTS.  113 

curb  is  laid,  and  the  walling  built  up  in  the  midst, 
whilst  the  space  around  it  is  carefully  filled  up  and 
packed  closely. 

To  obviate  the  expense  and  delays  of  this  system 
iron   cylinders  have    been    in    some    cases    sunk    by 
pressure ;  but  this  again,  from  the  difficulty  of  keeping 
them    vertical,    and    (if    they   be    intended    as    the 
permanent  lining  of  the  shaft)  from  the  obstacles  to 
making  a  water-tight  joint  with  the  solid  ground  at 
the  bottom,  is  a  very  troublesome  process.     In  order  to 
accomplish  the  latter   object,  M.  Triger,  in  the  year 
1845,   introduced  in   France   the   ingenious    idea    of 
keeping  out  the  water  by  forcing  down  compressed  air. 
He  formed,  by  means  of  a  flooring  in  the  tube,  a  lower 
air-tight  compartment,  in  which  he  found  it  feasible  to 
work  under  a  pressure  of  as  much  as  3J  atmospheres, 
obtained  by  air-pumps  driven  by  a  steam  engine,  and 
by  this  means  succeeded  in  establishing  his  water-tight 
joint  at  depths  of  60  and  even  82  feet.     For  the  more 
convenient  working  of  this  method  a  second  chamber 
was  formed  above  his  lower  working  one,  which  had 
a  trap-door  communicating  with  the  shaft  above,  and 
another  opening  into  the  chamber  below ;  and  one  of 
these  doors  being  always  closed  whilst  the  other  was 
opened,  the  excavated   material  could   be   drawn   up 
without  any  serious  loss  of  the  compressed  air.     A 
stand-pipe,   passing  from  the   surface  down  into  the 
bottom  of  the  working,  afforded  a  ready  means  for  the 
water  to  rise  in  a   constant  stream.     Triger's  method 
has  been  applied  with  success  in  several  shafts  in  the 
valley  of  the  Loire,  and  more  recently  at  some  difficult 
sinkings  in  Belgium  and  Westphalia. 

One   of  the  most  important  benefits  conferred  or 
I 


114  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

coal  mining  has  been  the  introduction  of  tubbing  of 
shafts  (cuvelage,  Fr.)  largely  practised  in  the  North  of 
England,  and  on  a,  somewhat  different  method  in 
Belgium,  Northern  France,  and  Westphalia.  When- 
ever large  springs  or  feeders  of  water  occur  in  the 
sinking  of  the  pit,  and  a  series  of  water-tight  measures 
intervenes  between  the  watery  beds  above  and  the  seam 
of  coal  beneath,  it  is  possible  by  this  means  to  keep 
out  the  whole  or  nearly  all  of  the  water,  and  thus  to 
relieve  the  mine  of  a  constant  and  sometimes  ruinous 
water-charge. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  last  century  several  of  the 
shafts  near  Newcastle  were  thus  fitted  with  plank- 
tubbing.  At  a  small  distance  below  the  watery  strata, 
a  bed  was  carefully  cut  and  dressed  to  receive  a  wedging- 
curb  of  oak,  between  the  segments  of  which  thin  deals 
were  placed  edge-ways  ;  the  joints  were  then  wedged 
with  wedges  of  seasoned  fir  introduced  by  means  of  a 
flat  chisel,  and  the  space  between  the  curb  and  the 
stone  at  the  back  was  similarly  driven  full  of  wedges. 
Lighter  rings  of  wood,  the  spiking  curbs,  were  then 
placed  at  intervals  of  18  inches  to  3  feet,  according  to 
the  pressure,  and  to  these  were  fixed  by  iron  spikes 
planks  of  2J  or  3  inches  thick,  bevelled  to  suit  the 
sweep  of  the  shaft,  and  the  whole  structure  was  thus 
carried  up  to  a  point  above  the  watery  strata,  and  there 
capped  by  another  well-wedged  curb.  Thus  the  water 
was  prevented  from  entering  the  pit,  and  a  pressure  of 
as  much  as  100  Ibs.  to  the  square  inch  could  be  resisted. 

The  corrosion  of  the  spikes,  and  the  consequent 
serious  leakages,  have  caused  the  abandonment  of 
this  first  method. 

Soon  afterwards  the  solid  wood  tubbing  was  tried, 


TUBBING    OF   SHAFTS.  115 

which  is  now  largely  practised  in  the  polygonal  pits  of 
the  Belgian  and  French  collieries.  A  wedging  curb, 
trousse  picotee,  is,  as  before,  placed  on  a  carefully 
smoothed  bed,  and  sometimes  superposed  on  a  narrower 
one  called  the  trousse  cottetee;  thin  slit  deals  are  placed 
between  all  the  joints,  moss  or  oakum  is  packed  in  at 
the  back,  and  by  wedging,  as  long  as  a  chisel  can  be 
made  to  enter,  all  the  joints  are  made  tight,  and  the 
space  at  the  back  crammed  full  with  thousands  of 
wedges — at  first  of  a  broad  flat  shape,  and  afterwards 
narrow  pointed  ones.  The  tubbing  itself  consists  of 
blocks  of  good  oak  or  elm,  with  the  joints  well  planed 
to  fit,  and  lined  with  sheeting  deal  for  farther  wedging. 
In  the  polygonal  pits  the  vertical  joints  are  made  to 
coincide,  the  horizontal  ones  are  irregular.  As  before 
described,  the  length  of  tubbing  is  carried  up  past  the 
watery  ground,  and  capped  by  another  wedging  curb, 
or  joined  to  an  upper  length  of  similar  work.  A 
tubbing  of  this  kind  has  the  advantage  of  resisting 
the  action  of  corrosive  water,  and  when  well  executed, 
withstands  a  pressure  of  two  or  three  hundred  pounds 
to  the  inch.  At  Carling,  in  the  Department  of  the 
Moselle,  a  pit  has  lately  been  sunk  by  M.  Pougnet,  to 
work  seams  at  230  and  280  metres  depth,  and  it  has 
been  tubbed  in  the  manner  above  described,  for  a 
length  of  no  less  than  160  metres,  or  524  English  feet. 
The  forcing  down  of  cast  iron  cylinders  has  in  many 
cases  been  successful ;  but  when  the  diameter  is  large, 
and  the  tubbing  needed  at  some  depth  in  the  shaft, 
they  have  been  cast  in  segments,  having  flanges  towards 
the  inside  of  the  pit  by  which  they  were  bolted  together. 
This  variety  has  now  become  almost  obsolete  since  the 
introduction  of  the  modern  method,  but  is  nevertheless 

i2 


116  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

capable  of  doing  good  service,  especially  in  going 
down  through  alluvial  matter  at  the  surface.  My 
friend,  Mr.  Fletcher,  F.K.S.,  has  lately  by  this  means 
carried  a  shaft  successfully  through  sixty  feet  of  coarse 
gravel  and  boulders,  full  of  water,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Derwent,  between  Workington  and  Cockermouth.  This 
shaft  is  12  feet  diameter  in  the  clear ;  the  lower  ring 
of  18  inches  high  was  sharp-edged  below,  and  above 
this  only  the  vertical  joints  were  bolted,  the  horizontal 
ones  left  free  to  a  little  play.  The  exterior  of  this 
tubbing  is  of  course  flush,  to  facilitate  its  passage 
downwards,  and  the  joints  lined  with  sheeting  deal  to 
make  them  tight. 

The  great  facility  of  dealing  with  cast  iron,  or  metal 
in  any  desired  pattern,  has  led  to  the  special  advance- 
ment of  this  variety  of  tubbing  in  England.  The 
commencement  is  very  similar  to  what  has  already  been 
described.  One,  two,  or  three  wedging  curbs,  according 
to  the  pressure  expected,  in  segments  of  cast  iron,  are 
laid  and  wedged  with  the  greatest  care,  since  perfect 
tightness  here  is  of  the  utmost  importance.  Upon  the 
upper  one  the  plates  or  segments  of  tubbing  are  built 
up,  sheathing  of  pitch  pine,  f  or  \  inch  thick,  being 
inserted  between  all  the  contact  surfaces,  and  the 
vertical  joints  broken,  as  in  stone  work.  The  plates 
are  from  f  to  1£  inches  thick,  and  between  3  feet  and 
12  inches  in  height,  according  to  the  amount  of 
pressure  to  which  they  will  be  exposed.  They  are 
smooth  towards  the  inside  of  the  shaft,  but  strengthened 
on  the  outside  by  flanges  and  cross-ribs,  supported  by 
brackets.  Before  being  placed,  they  should  be  tested 
for  soundness  by  being  smartly  struck  all  over  with  a 
moderately  heavy  hammer.  Every  segment  has  a 


TUBBING   OF    SHAFTS. 


117 


hole  in  the  middle,  through  which  the  water  may  escape 
until  the  whole  structure  is  prepared.  The  vertical 
joints  are  meantime  wedged,  but  the  horizontal  ones, 
for  fear  of  lifting  the  plates,  wait  until  a  sufficient 
height  of  segments  has  been  built  up,  and  is  surmounted 
by  another  wedging  curb.  Then,  beginning  at  the 


O     i     2     3    A     5    6    7     8    9    10  FEET 


Fig.  13.  Cast-iron  tubbing  resting  on  two  wedging  curbs,  the  upper  one  hollow 
cast  iron,  the  lower  one  of  wood. 

bottom,  oaken  plugs  are  driven  into  the  centre  holes 
as  the  water  rises  behind  the  plates,  and  the  wedging 
of  the  joints  is  completed.  The  air  or  gas  must  be 
allowed  to  escape  freely  above  the  water,  and  caution 


118 


COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 


therefore  is  exercised  in  not  plugging  too  rapidly. 
Should  any  aeriform  fluid  thus  be  imprisoned  it  will 
be  apt  to  burst  a  plate  or  blow  out  the  sheathing ;  and 


1! 

iQDr 

u 

11 

JllGL 

111 

H 

JLlDL 

111 

Fig.  14.  Cast-iron  tubbing  plate,  elevation  and  cross  section. 

in  order  to  relieve  the  pressure,  a  pipe  is  sometimes 
fixed  from  the  upper  ring  of  plates  to  the  next  length 
of  tubbing  above,  and  again  from  that  to  a  higher 
part  of  the  pit. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  tubbing  is 
that  of  the  Shireoaks  Colliery,  recently  opened  by  the 
late  Duke  of  Newcastle.  The  pits  are  515  yards  deep 
to  the  "  top  hard  "  seam,  12  feet  diameter,  and  the  tub- 
bing in  11  lengths,  extends  for  a  total  depth  of  170 
yards,  and  weighs  about  600  tons  in  each  pit.  My  friend, 
Mr.  C.  Tylden  Wright,  under  whose  supervision  it  was 
completed,  informs  me  that  the  pressure  at  the  bottom 
was  about  196  Ibs.  per  square  inch,  and  that  the  cost  of 
the  lower  and  stronger  part  was  as  follows,  per  yard : — 

£       s. 

126  cwts.  of  cast  iron  at  7*.          »        •        .     44     2 
Fixing  ditto          .        .        .         .        .        .       30 

Wedging,  about 30 

Laying  rings  (about  10  yards  apart)     .        .     10     0 

£60     2 


CHAUDRON  S   TUBBING.  119 

In  order  to  give  a  vent  to  air  and  gas,  taps  and  pipes 
are  applied,  communicating  from  behind  the  tubbing 
to  the  surface,  through  which  a  large  volume  of  water 
is  now  discharged;  and  by  the  final  completion 
of  the  work  in  1858,  heavy  feeders,  of  water,  which 
during  the  sinking  yielded  as  much  as  500  gallons  or 
2J  tons  of  water  per  minute  in  the  two  pits,  have  been 
thoroughly  excluded. 

Cast  iron  is  so  subject  to  destruction  by  the  corroding 
action  of  the  water,  and  of  the  smoke  and  gases  from 
the  ventilating  furnaces,  that  many  schemes  have  been 
tried  for  its  preservation ;  a  close  lining  of  brick  answers 
well,  but  makes  it  difficult  to  get  at  and  wedge  up  a 
leak  or  replace  a  faulty  plate ;  a  coating  of  paint  or 
tar,  and  a  lining  with  wood  (3-inch  birch-wood  at 
Shireoak)  are  more  or  less  efficacious. 

M.  Chaudron,  a  Belgian,  has  succeeded  in  tubbing 
pits  by  a  method  which  promises  to  have  the  advantage 
of  great  economy.  The  shaft  is  bored  by  Kind's 
apparatus,  and  the  cast-iron  tubbing  lowered  as  the 
boring  advances.  The  bottom  ring  of  the  tubbing  has 
a  sliding  case,  in  which  is  placed  a  quantity  of  moss  or 
oakum,  which  when  the  whole  length  of  the  tubbing 
comes  to  rest  on  the  water-tight  bed  cut  for  it  by  the 
borer  (under  water)  gets  so  packed  as  to  form  a  tight 
joint.  The  water  is  then  pumped  out,  and  the  pit  is 
ready  for  wedging  and  completion.  At  the  colliery  of 
Peronnes,  where  the  watery  strata  extended  from  141 
to  344  feet  deep,  the  pit  was  tubbed  at  one-fourth  the 
usual  cost. 

In  Westphalia  much  attention  has  been  given  to 
tubbing  with  stone  set  in  hydraulic  cement,  but  although 
applicable  in  some  cases,  this  method  is  comparatively 


120  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING 

clumsy  when  a  heavy  pressure  has  to  be  met,  and  the 
cement  is  liable  to  destruction  in  furnace  shafts.  The 
first  outlay  for  a  substantial  tubbing,  whatever  be  the 
material,  is  no  doubt  very  serious,  but  the  great 
advantages  to  be,  gained  when  it  can  be  suitably  applied 
are  such  as  to  make  it  desirable  to  extend  the  practice 
more  generally.  It  is  not  only  a  benefit  to  the  mine 
in  relieving  it  of  a  heavy  and  constant  charge,  and.oi 
the  interruptions  and  accidents  inseparable  from  the 
use  of  large  pumping  apparatus,  but  it  is  an  advantage 
to  all  the  dwellers  round,  and  may  thus  interest  the 
general  public,  as  retaining  the  waters  in  their  natural 
channels,  and  thus  obviating  that  destruction  of  springs, 
which  is  often  charged  upon  the  miner  as  a  heinous 
offence  by  other  members  of  the  community. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

DRIVING   OF   LEVELS   AND   CUTTING   THE   COAL. 

THE  preparatory  work  of  a  colliery  is  far  from  being 
completed  when  the  shaft  has  reached  the  bottom  of 
the  seam.  It  would  be  ruin,  especially  in  deep  work- 
ings, to  attempt  at  once  to  extract  coal  in  any  quantity, 
for  the  weakening  of  the  ground  by  its  removal  would 
not  only  tend  to  bring  in  or  destroy  the  pit,  but  would 
crush  the  roads  which  should  remain  open  as  thorough- 
fares for  the  working  of  the  distant  parts  of  the 
"royalty"  or  field  of  operations. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  a  large  mass  of  coal  should 
be  left  unwrought  around  the  pit  as  a  shaft-pillar. 


DRIVING  OF  LEVELS. 


121 


having  only  the  narrow  drifts  cut  through  it,  which 
are  to  he  employed  as  roads  and  as  channels  for  air 
and  water.  Next,  the  levels  or  drifts  for  these  purposes 
are  to  be  driven  out  in  the  directions  required  by  the 
lie  or  position  of  the  strata.  Where  the  beds  have  a 
definite  dip  in  one  direction,  the  working  pits  are 
usually  placed  as  far  towards  the  deep  as  it  is  con- 
venient to  go,  so  that,  underground,  the  coal  may  be 
brought  down  hill  to  the  pit-bottom.  But  as  the 
workings  advance,  it  may  after  a  time  be  convenient, 
instead  of  sinking  fresh  pits  farther  to  the  deep,  to 
sink  the  existing  pits  deeper,  and  drive  out  cross-cuts, 
or  to  work  down-hill  and  bring  the  coal  upwards  by 
engine  power. 

The  annexed  figure  represents  in  section  the  valuable 
upper  seams  of  the  Flintshire  coalfield,  where  they  dip 


Top  Hill. 


Smithy 
Pit. 


Marsh. 


River 
Dee. 


Fig.  15.  Section  of  coal  seams  at  Bagillt— 160  yards  to  the  inch. 
2,  5,  and  3  are  the  two,  five,  and  three-yard  coals  respectively. 
D  and  4  F  are  the  Durbog  and  four-foot  seams. 

beneath  the  estuary  ot  tne  Dee.    The  pits  at  Top  Hill 
have  cross-cuts  driven  through  the  measures  ;  the  pits 


122  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

nearer  to  the  marshes  have  down-mil  drifts  carried  in 
the  inclination  of  the  seams. 

Should  the  strata*  lie  in  a  trough^  the  pits  may 
advantageously  be  placed  in  its  middle  line,  so  as  to 
command  the  coal  on  both  sides. 

In  those  few  districts  where  coal  still  remains  to  be 
got  by  "  free  drainage,"  the  workings  will  be  started 
much  the  same  as  from  the  pit-bottom,  the  levels  being 
driven  at  once  into  the  hill-side  ;  but  the  arrangement 
is  usually  a  defective  one  for  quantity,  as  not  allowing 
so  readily  of  extension  in  each  direction. 

One  of  the  most  serious  questions  to  be  solved  by 
the  coal-viewer  in  the  very  outset  is  the  system  by 
which  he  means  to  work  his  mineral ;  and  in  order  to 
form  a  judgment  upon  this  head,  it  is  important  that 
he  should  not  only  be  acquainted  with  the  various 
modes  in  use  elsewhere,  but  should  have  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  seams  in  his  own 
district.  The  first  step  must  be  nearly  the  same  in  all 
cases,  although  it  may  be  so  much  the  simpler  as  the 
colliery  is  shallower,  smaller,  and  not  required  to  stand 
open  for  so  many  years.  This  step  is  the  opening  for- 
ward of  the  levels,  drifts,  or  way-gates,  which  are  the 
pioneers  of  the  excavations,  and  must  precede,  at  least 
to  some  extent,  the  removal  of  coal  on  any  large  scale. 
They  are,  in  fact,  generally  characterised  as  narrow,  or 
dead  work,  in  contradistinction  to  the  wider  working 
places  which  follow,  and  which  alone  are  expected  to  be 
remunerative. 

Is  the  proprietary  well  provided  with  capital,  the 
extent  of  area  not  very  great,  and  the  ground  firm,  the 
levels  may  be  driven  to  the  boundary  of  the  royalty, 
and  the  coal  worked  back  towards  the  shaft,  leaving 


DRIVING  OF  LEVELS.  123 

the  dangerous  spaces  from  which  the  coal  is  extracted 
(the  waste  or  goaf)  behind,  entirely  done  with.  But  if 
the  opposite  conditions  hold  good,  coal  must  be  got  as 
soon  as  the  levels  have  advanced  sufficiently  far  beyond 
the  shaft-pillar. 

If  the  water  is  to  be  mechanically  raised  from  the 
workings,  the  pit  will  have  to  be  sunk  to  some  little 
depth  beneath  the  seam,  for  a  sump,  in  which  the 
drainage  may  collect;  and  it  is  well,  in  addition,  to 
open  out,  on  the  deep  of  the  intended  roads,  sufficient 
excavation  to  serve  as  a  pound,  or  standage,  for  water, 
where  it  may  accumulate  for  a  few  days  in  case  of 
breakage  of  machinery. 

A  level  cannot  be  driven  singly,  unless  divided  into 
two  parts  for  the  in -going  and  out-coming  currents  of 
air  ;  and  hence  it  is  usual  to  prefer  to  drive  two  parallel 
ways,  with  a  rib  of  from  6  to  10  yards  thickness  between 
them,  cut  through  at  intervals  as  required  for  the  ven- 
tilation. The  lower  of  these  is  the  drain,  or  water-gate ; 
the  upper,  the  main  road,  rolley-way,  or  way-gate; 
whilst  in  extensive  collieries  a  third  is  usually  added, 
for  more  efficient  ventilating  arrangements. 

In  coal  seams  of  moderate  thickness,  these  leading 
drifts  will  be  carried  between  the  floor  and  roof  of  the 
seam,  and  of  such  a  width  as  is  most  consistent  with 
their  security,  commonly  from  5  to  10  feet.  If  the 
seam  be  thicker  than  6  or  8  feet,  it  is  usual  to  leave 
a  part  of  it  overhead  as  roof ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
be  too  low  for  convenience  as  a  horse-road,  either  some 
of  the  roof  must  be  ripped  down,  or  a  sufficient  depth 
dug  up  from  the  thill  or  floor.  Few  of  the  roads, 
however,  comparatively  speaking,  will  stand  long 
exposed  to  the  pressure  from  all  sides,  and  to  the 


124  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

oxidising  action  of  the  air,  without  being  artificially 
secured.  The  most  usual  method  of  effecting  this  im- 
portant end  is  with  timber  placed  in  sets  of  three,  at 
intervals  of  3  or  4  feet.  Two  of  them,  commonly  larch 
poles,  or  sometimes  oak,  4  to  8  or  10  inches  thick,  are 
placed  as  uprights,  legs,  or  stanchions  against  the  sides, 
and  the  third  laid  crosswise  upon 
the  heads  of  the  others  as  a  cap 
or  head-piece.  When  the  roof 
is  apt  to  crack  off,  it  is  addition- 
ally protected  by  planks  laid  upon 
the  cap-pieces  from  one  set  to  the 
other.  Or  better  still,  and  in 

Fig.  16. 

some  cases  absolutely  necessary, 

is  the  arching  of  the  main  roads  with  brick  or  stone, 
now  and  then — when  the  floor  is  very  soft — resting  on 
an  invert  flat  arch  below.  Especially  near  the  pit 
bottom,  where  more  room  than  usual  is  wanted  for  two 
trains  of  waggons,  and  wherever  a  pass-by  is  required, 
it  is  needful  either  to  construct  a  good  wide  arching, 
or  to  have  the  wooden  caps  so  long,  that  they  should 
receive  the  support  of  an  additional  prop  in  the  middle. 
It  is  obvious,  although  sometimes  neglected,  that 
in  order  to  obtain  the  full  advantage  from  the  timber, 
the  direction  of  the  main  pressure  should  be  duly 
considered,  and  that  no  unnecessary  cuts  should  be  made 
in  the  pieces  which  may  weaken  their  full  resistance  ; 
also  that  the  caps  should  be  so  fitted  as  not  to  act  like 
wedges  in  splitting  the  uprights  as  soon  as  the  weight 
presses  ;  and  again,  that  in  inclined  seams,  the  props 
should  be  placed  at  right  angles  to  the  floor  and  roof, 
so  as  to  prevent  their  being  forced  out  of  position  by 
the  weight  from  above. 


DRIVING  OF  LEVELS.  125 

Instances  might  be  cited  where,  as  soon  as  the  main 
roads  have  to  be  maintained  near  extensive  workings, 
it  is  found  to  be  the  better  course  to  remove  all  the 
coal,  and  to  trust  to  pack-walls,  built  up  of  debris  to 
sustain  the  roof,  rather  than  to  leave  a  rib  of  coal. 

Although  commonly  called  levels,  and  carried  theo- 
retically in  a  horizontal  line,  at  right  angles  to  the 
main  dip  of  the  bed,  these  drifts  cannot  be  carried 
perfectly  level,  or  the  water  would  not  flow  back  towards 
the  mouth  or  the  pit-bottom.  Add  to  which  a  certain 
moderate  amount  of  inclination  is  needed  in  order  to 
facilitate  the  bringing  out  of  the  loaded  trains  or 
waggons.  A  rise  of  1  in  130  appears  to  give  the 
maximum  of  effect  to  horse-power  in  drawing  the  full 
waggons  down,  and  the  empty  ones  back,  but  1  in  200 
is  often  adopted,  especially  where  it  is  an  object  to  gain 
the  greatest  possible  area  of  coal  from  a  given  winning. 
In  certain  districts,  as  in  Dean  Forest,  a  colliery  may 
be  limited  on  the  deep  side,  by  a  level  to  be  driven 
from  a  certain  point,  in  which  case  the  utmost  endeavour 
will  be  applied  to  drive  it  as  nearly  horizontal  as  prac- 
ticable. The  men  occupied  in  driving  will  often  be 
found  to  swerve  upwards  with  the  floor  of  their  drift, 
and  constant  attention  is  therefore  needed  to  keep  it  in 
its  true  direction ;  and  when  intended  for  a  traffic  road, 
to  make  it  as  straight  and  regular  as  possible.  In 
former  days  all  the  little  rolls  and  inequalities  of  the 
beds  were  closely  followed ;  but  at  present,  when  the 
cheap  conveyance  of  large  quantities  is  a  more 
prominent  object,  they  are,  when  it  is  feasible, 
neglected,  and  the  levels  cut  boldly  through  coal  or 
stone,  as  the  case  may  be.  When  troubles  or  dis- 
locations occur,  their  magnitude  must  determine 


126  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

how  far  this  regularity  may  be  carried  out,  or  whether 
the  level  will  have  to  be  swerved  from  its  direction  in 
order  to  catch,  at  the  Dearest  distance,  the  coal  on  the 
farther  side  of  the  line  of  fault. 

In  certain  modes  of  working,  the  removal  of  the 
coal  will  begin  at  once  from  the  rise  side  of  these  main 
levels,  but  in  others,  upper  pairs  of  levels  will  be  driven 
parallel  to  the  first,  and  connected  with  them  by  rise 
drifts,  or  cross-headings  at  certain  intervals.  In  other 
modes  again,  the  chief  working  places  will  be  started 
from  pairs  of  up-hill  drifts  (lord-gates)  carried  up  the 
rise  of  seam. 

The  expense  of  this  narrow  work  is  to  a  great  extent 
got  rid  of,  when,  as  in  certain  varieties  of  long -work , 
to  be  presently  described,  the  levels  themselves  can  be 
included  in  a  broad  face  of  excavation,  which  is  simply 
pushed  forward  in  advance  of  the  remainder  of  the 
colliery. 

We  may  here  glance  at  the  cutting  or  hewing  of  the 
coal,  which  in  the  levels  has  to  be  effected  by  much  the 
same  means  as  in  the  larger  workings,  although  the 
greater  amount  of  labour  which  in  the  former  must  be 
expended  on  a  given  quantity  of  coal,  and  the  smaller 
size  into  which  it  is  cut  and  broken,  renders  it  necessary 
in  general  to  pay  the  men  by  so  much  per  yard  on  their 
progress,  instead  of  by  the  ton  or  tram. 

The  pick  (pike,  slitter,  or  mandril)  is  the  special 
tool  of  the  collier,  much  varied  in  different  districts, 
even  for  cutting  coal;  and  of  different  weight  and 
strength  in  the  same  pit,  according  as  it  is  intended  for 
under-cutting  (horizontally),  for  shearing,  or  cutting 
vertically,  or  for  working  in  shale  or  stone.  The  handle 
(shaft,  or  hilt)  is  from  27  to  33  inches  long,  and  the 


CUTTING  THE  COAL. 


127 


double-pointed  head  from  18  to  20  inches  ;  sometimes 
straight  or  nearly  so  as  in  central  England,  and  in  some 
varieties  of  the  Belgian  rivelaine,  frequently  a  little 


Fig.  17.  Scale,  f-inch  to  1  foot. 

A.  North  Staffordshire  holing  pick. 

B.  Anchored  pick,  Durham. 

C.  Rivelaine,  Belgium. 


Fig.  17«.  Scale  §  inch  to  1  foot. 
1.  Coal-pick,  Landshipping,  Pembroke. 
2        Do.        Westphalia. 
3.       Do.        (Haveresse)  Liege. 


curved,  and  sometimes  in  the  North  mucn  "  anchored." 
The  points  are  steeled  and  sharpened  four-square,  with 
a  very  narrow  cutting  edge.* 

In  breaking  down  or  getting  the  coal,  the  first  opera- 
tion is  to  bench,  kirve,  or  hole  it  along  the  bottom  of  the 
seam,  or  in  other  words,  to  cut  a  groove  to  the  depth  of 
two  or  three  feet  either  in  the  lowest  part  of  the  coal, 
or  in  the  clay  that  underlies  it.  If  the  clay  be  tough 
and  hard,  it  often  follows  that  great  waste  is  caused  by 
holing  hi  the  coal,  for  as  the  groove  advances  in  depth, 

*  Coal  picks  with  single  point  are  rarely  to  be  seen  in  these  islands ; 
in  Pembrokeshire  they  have  been  used  for  the  anthracite  ;  but  on  the 
Continent  they  are  common. 


128  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

it  must  also  be  cut  higher  at  its  commencement,  and 
the  whole  of  the  material  is  chipped  so  small  as  to  be 
useless.  Some  coals  are  so  strong  as  to  require  no 
support  during  this  operation ;  others,  which  are  tender, 
or  divided  by  frequent  planes  of  cleat,  backs,  &c.,  re- 
quire to  be  propped  or  spragged,  especially  when,  in 
very  deep  holing,  the  hewer  has  to  place  himself  almost 
beneath  the  seam  which  he  is  detaching.  For  thus 
holing  at  the  bottom  of  the  seam,  the  collier  lies  on  his 
side,  and  in  this  apparently  constrained  attitude  swings 
the  pick  almost  horizontally,  and  delivers  a  number 
of  smart  and  well-pointed  blows  before  he  proceeds  to 
remove  the  debris.  In  certain  seams  there  may  be  an 


Fig.  18.  Colliers  holing  Coleford  high-delf  seam,  Forest  of  Dean. 

advantage  in  holing  in  the  middle,  or  even  at  the  top, 
according  as  partings  of  soft  shale  or  friable  coal  may 
occur ;  and  in  one  and  the  same  colliery  you  may 
sometimes  see  two  or  three  methods  of  holing  in 
practice. 


DRIVING  OF  LEVELS  AND  CUTTING  THE  COAL.  329 

When  the  coal  to  be  cut  away  is  a  short  block,  as  in 
the  driving  of  levels,  it  will  generally  need  shearing 
or  vertical  cutting  to  free  it  at  the  sides,  and  even  in 
wider  workings  this  operation  is  sometimes  required ; 
then  at  length  the  final  breaking  down  or  "falling"  of 
the  seam  thus  partially  freed  is  completed  by  applying 
taper  wedges  at  some  few  feet  apart,  and  driving  them 
with  heavy  hammers  ;  or  in  the  case  of  a  more  resisting 
material,  by  blasting  with  gunpowder.  The  operation 
of  boring  a  hole  and  firing  the  shot  for  this  lattei 
purpose  is  very  rapid  and  easy  as  compared  with  the 
blasting  in  hard  ground.  A  drill,  with  broad  and 
sharp  bit,  is  quickly  driven  forward  by  hand  in  the  soft 
and  brittle  coal ;  the  hole  is  usually  dry  ;  plenty  of  safe 
tamping  is  at  hand ;  risk  there  is  none  in  using  an  iron 
needle  (except  of  course  in  stone)  ;  and  danger  is  only 
to  be  apprehended  where  fire-damp  is  apt  to  be  present, 
and  where  the  anomaly  exists  of  using  safety  lamps 
and  yet  firing  charges  of  powder. 

This  state  of  things  has  in  fact  caused  frequent  acci- 
dents, which  can  only  be  guarded  against  either  by 
allowing  the  practice  under  the  careful  supervision  of 
officers,  or  by  forbidding  it  and  giving  the  men  a  so 
much  better  price  for  their  work  as  will  be  needed  to 
make  up  for  the  smaller  amount  they  can  get  by  wedg- 
ing as  compared  with  blasting.*  \ 

Some  seams  there  are  which  will  not  bear  this 
systematic  mode  of  work,  where  the  coal  will  not  stand 

*  It  is  probable  that  much  manual  labour  \vill  be  spared  by  the 
introduction  of  coal-cutters,  worked  by  steam,  compressed  air,  or  water. 
Several  ingenious  machines  have  already  been  put  to  practical  work, 
among  which  we  may  cite  those  of  Messrs.  Firth  and  Donnisthorpe, 
of  Messrs.  Levick,  and  the  hydraulic  slotting  machine  of  Garrett, 
Marshall,  and  Co. ;  but  it  would  be  premature  to  express  an  opinion 
on  their  general  applicability. 

K 


130  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

to  be  holed,  and  must  be  picked  down  in  irregular 
pieces.  In  collieries  in  the  South  of  France  I  have 
seen  this  operate  as  a  drawback  to  cheap  "  getting  " 
and  to  obtaining  a  due  proportion  of  large  coal.  But 
a  magnificent  example  to  the  contrary  is  the  pure 
"  spiry  "  four- foot  seam  of  Aberdare,  where,  at  Mr. 
Nixon's  Navigation  Pit,  a  pick  seems  to  be  hardly 
needed  ;  one  smith  suffices  to  sharpen  for  300  men,  and 
the  coal  in  the  face  comes  down  so  readily  that  a  man 
has  only  to  show  it  the  point  of  a  bar,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  has  spread  before  him  masses  enough  to  fill  a 
tram! 


CHAPTER   XII. 

POST-AND-STALL,    AND   LONG   WORK. 

Is  the  general  form  in  which  the  colliery  is  to  be  laid 
out  determined  on,  the  position  of  the  shafts,  main 
levels,  and  direction  of  the  working  faces  settled  by 
local  conditions,  we  have  next  to  solve  the  question  of 
the  best  mode  of  the  working  away  (exploitation)  of 
the  coal. 

The  most  simple  and  natural  method  would  appear 
to  be,  to  open  ranges  of  working-places,  each  as  wide 
as  the  nature  of  the  floor  and  roof  will  admit  of  with 
safety,  and  each  divided  from  its  neighbour  by  masses 
of  coal  broad  enough  to  sustain  the  pressure  from  above. 
This  is  in  fact  the  rudimentary  idea  of  the  system  of 
post-and-stall,  or  bord-and-pillar,  (stoop -and-room  of 
Scotland).  In  fullest  opposition  to  this  method  is  that 
of  removing  the  whole  breadth  of  coal  over  a  long 


POST-AND-STALL   WORK.  131 

continuous  face,  supporting  the  roof  at  the  immediate 
"  face  "  by  temporary  props,  and  allowing  the  super- 
incumbent strata  to  break  down  bodily  at  a  few  feet 
distance  behind  the  workmen — long-wall  or  long-work. 
Other  modifications  there  are,  which  partake  more  or 
less  of  the  character  of  one  or  other  of  the  above  two 
systems,  and  which  are  in  vogue  in  special  districts. 

The  post-and-stall  work  is  most  largely  practised  in 
the  Northern  collieries ;  but  in  one  form  or  another  is 
met  with  in  most  coal  districts,  and  is  sometimes  called 
for  by  particular  conditions,  such  as  thickness  of  seam, 
tenderness  of  coal,  or  position  of  workings  beneath 
sea,  rivers,  or  other  surface  which  must  not  be 
disturbed. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  coal  mining,  it  is  apt  to  be 
the  case  that  the  working-spaces  (stalls  or  lords) 
driven  across  the  grain  or  cleat  of  the  coal  are  made 
as  wide  as  possible,  and  that  the  pillars  between  them 
are  left  as  thin  as  is  required  for  immediate  security. 
Thus,  towards  the  outcrop  of  the  Durham  coalfields 
extensive  areas  have  in  former  days  been  worked  where 
the  bords  were  from  3  to  5  yards  in  width,  and  the 
pillars  between  them  1  to  3  or  4  yards.  As  the 
bords  advanced  it  was  necessary  to  communicate  be- 
tween them  for  ventilation,  and  cross-drifts,  called 
headways,  were  carried  about  2  yards  wide,  in  the 
direction  of  the  cleat,  or  on  the  ends,  and  at  28  or  30 
yards  apart.  Where  the  pillars  were  only  3  or  4  feet 
thick,  it  is  obvious  that  they  would  soon  be  so  crushed 
as  to  be  utterly  useless,  and  thus  a  third  or  a  fourth 
part  of  the  coal  would  at  once  be  wasted  by  this  means 
alone.  When  the  pillars  came  to  be  laid  out  of  4,  8, 
or  12  yards  to  the  wall,  or  in  breadth,  and  it  was 

K2 


132  COAL  AND   COAL-MINING. 

found  towards  the  end  of  last  century,  that  they  might 
be  robbed^  or  have  a  great  deal  of  coal  taken  from  them 
after  the  first  opening  of  the  bords,  it  became  a  matter 
of  moment  to  adopt  the  proportions  which  would  be 
most  favourable  to  the  full  utilisation  of  the  seam. 
Two  great  evils  have  to  be  avoided,  evils  on  so  large  a 
scale  that  tens  of  thousands  of  acres  have  been  rendered 
useless  to  the  community  by  the  neglect  of  proper 
dimensions.     One  of  these  is  the  thrust,  which  when 
pillars  are  too  slight,  and  when  the  floor  is  hard,  cracks 
the  pillars,  forces  off  large  slabs  of  coal,  and  at  last 
crushes  the  whole  into  slack.     The  second  is  the  creep, 
a  disorder  more  uncertain  and  insidious  in  its  approach, 
and  which  in  spite  of  all  attempted  remedies,  will  some- 
times destroy  a  valuable  colliery.     It  arises  when  the 
thill  or  underclay  is  soft,  and  the  proportion  of  pillars 
to  bords  such  that  after  a  time  a  downward  movement 
takes  place;  the  pillars  then  force  the   clay   to  rise 
upward  in  the  bords,  the  road-ways  are  injured   and 
have  to  be  constantly  repaired,  the  air-ways  are  partially 
choked,  and  the  pillars  crack.     The  mischief  has  perhaps 
taken  its  rise  only  at  some  unusually  weak  place,  against 
a  trouble  ;  but  as  it  spreads  from  bord  to  bord,  and  infects 
an  entire  district,  the  floor  bursts  asunder,  the  roof, 
unequally  supported,  breaks  down,   the  workings  are 
closely  filled  with  rubbish,  and  there  remain  the  isolated 
crept  pillars,  only  accessible  by  fresh  and  dangerous 
workings,  and  generally  so  crushed  as  to  be  nearly 
worthless. 

The  experience  of  the  Newcastle  miners  has  led  them, 
especially  in  their  deeper  pits,  to  increase  more  and 
more  the  dimensions  of  their  pillars,  employing  them 
no  longer  as  mere  supports,  but  taking  out  in  the 
preliminary  stage  of  working  in  the  whole  coal,  only 
\ 


POST-AND-STALL  WORK. 


133 


from  Jth  to  £th  of  the  coal,  and  leaving  the  pillars  for 
subsequent  entire  removal,  when  operations  are  com- 
menced in  the  broken.  Hence,  in  the  deep  collieries 
the  pillars  are  left  of  24  or  30  yards  long,  by  16,  18, 
or  24  yards  wide,  and  even  30  yards  by  40. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  pillar  working  it  was  usual 
to  open  out  in  bords  and  headways  drifts  extensive 
areas,  amounting  often  to  many  hundreds  of  acres, 
and  to  begin  the  thinning  or  removal  of  the  pillars 


SO  10  0  20O 

Fig.  19.  Post-and-stall  work. 


D.  Downcast  shaft. 

U.  Upcast  shaft. 

F.  Furnace  for  ventilation. 


B.  Eegulator  for  ventilation. 

C.  Crossings  for  ditto. 
D  D.  Doors  for  ditto. 


The  arrows  indicate  the  direction  of  the  air  currents. 

only  after  they  had  stood  for  a  long  time.     Sundry 
disadvantages  arise  from  this  course — the  deterioration 


134  COAL   4ND   COAL-MINING. 

of  the  exposed  surfaces,  the  difficulty  of  ventilation, 
and  -  the  tendency  of  creep  or  of  the  results  of 
explosion  to  spread  through  the  entire  colliery.  Mr. 
Buddie  introduced  a  great  improvement  when  he  laid 
out  the  workings  in  panels  or  compartments  of  moderate 
acreage,  divided  from  one  another  by  ribs  of  coal  40? 
50,  or  60  yards  wide ;  and  when  he  followed  up  this  divi- 
sion of  the  colliery  by  making  pillar  working  follow  very 
closely  after  the  opening  of  the  bords  in  the  whole  coal. 

This  arrangement  is  shown  in  the  plan  Fig.  19, 
where  the  unwrought  coal  is  left  black,  and  the  goaf 
or  portion  from  which  the  pillars  have  been  removed, 
and  into  which  the  roof  has  fallen,  is  lightly  shaded. 

The  actual  getting  of  the  pillars  is  managed  in 
various  forms — by  driving  a  bord  through  its  midst, 
by  taking  off  slices  parallel  to  its  longer  face,  or  by 
paring  it  off  in  a  succession  of  steps,  each  farther 
pillar  being  a  grade  more  reduced  in  bulk.  Some  of 
these  operations  may  thus  be  assimilated  a  good  deal 
to  the  long-reall  method ;  and  need,  for  the  due  protec- 
tion of  the  men,  that  the  faces  of  work  be  protected  by 
rows  of  props,  or  by  pack- walls  so  placed  as  to  regulate 
the  fall  of  the  roof. 

The  Lancashire  post-and-stall  system  is  somewhat 
different,  partly  in  consequence  of  a  generally  steep 
inclination,  and  partly  from  the  softness  of  the  floor. 
The  seams,  like  those  of  the  Tyne  and  Wear,  are 
generally  between  3  and  6  feet  in  thickness ;  but  the 
working  places  cannot  be  carried  so  wide  as  in  the 
former  district.  The  working  drifts,  or  bays,  like  the 
above  mentioned  bords,  having  to  be  directed  at  right 
angles  to  the  cleat  or  divisional  planes,  it  happens  that 
with  the  varying  undulations  of  the  coal-measures, 


POST-AND-STALL  WORK.  135 

the  direction  of  cleat  remaining  constant,  they  may 
have  to  be  arranged  very  differently  in  starting  from 
the  main  roads  or  water-level  drifts.  Thus  if  the  level 
course  happen  to  be  parallel  with  the  cleat,  the  bays 
will  be  opened  up  the  rise,  and  again  joined  with  one 
another  by  drifts  carried  on  the  end,  generally  ten 
yards  apart.  If  the  direction  of  the  level  course  be  at 
right  angles  to  the  cleat,  it  will  be  thus  also  that  the 
bays  must  be  opened,  and  they  will  be  connected  with 
the  main  roads  by  pairs  of  drifts  (up-brows)  carried 
up  the  rise  of  the  seam ;  or  sometimes  if  working  to 
the  dip  of  the  main  road,  by  down-brows,  whence  the 
coal  has  to  be  pulled  up  by  engine  power. 

The  pillars  are  thus  left  ten  yards  on  the  rise,  by 
20,  30,  or  40  yards  the  other  way,  and  are  intended  to 
be  robbed  as  soon  as  a  sufficient  tract  has  been  opened. 
This  last  operation,  as  in  the  Northern  fields,  in  contact 
with  the  goaf,  and  exposed  not  only  to  the  successive 
falls  of  the  roof  but  to  the  invasion  of  fire-damp 
loosed  from  the  disturbed  measures,  needs  every  caution 
in  its  practice,  and  makes  it  often  necessary  to  admit 
safety-lamps  alone,  whilst  the  other  parts  of  the  same 
colliery  may  be  securely  worked  with  candles. 

There  are  still  many  coal-mines  in  which  the  stalls 
or  wickets  and  the  cross-headings  or  thirls  are  driven  as 
wide  as  they  will  stand,  say  5  yards,  and  pillars  of 
only  2,  3,  or  4  yards  square  are  left ;  or  where  again, 
the  stalls  are  driven  of  this  full  width,  and  long  pillars 
of  a  few  feet  thick  left  standing  between  them.  In 
either  case  a  considerable  waste  of  coal  must  occur,  and 
the  irregular  openings  left  as  goaf  are  fraught  with 
danger  when  fire-damp  is  present.  The  method  most 
usual  in  South  Wales  is  of  this  latter  kind ;  cross- 


136 


COAL    AND   COAL-MINIXG. 


headings  are  driven  out  from  the  main  level  at  such  an 
angle  of  obliquity  as  to  be  convenient  for  horse-roads, 
whilst  from  the  latter  the  working  stalls  are  opened, 
narrow  at  the  entrance  (to  protect  the  roads),  and 
wider  inside.  The  pillars  between  them  are  left  so 
narrow  that  they  are  sure  to  be  much  crushed ;  and 
though  some  portions  of  them  may  be  robbed,  a  large 
amount  is  wasted.  The  ventilation  becomes  irregular 
and  difficult,  and  many  accidents  arise. 

A  last  variety  remains  to  be  mentioned,  viz.,  the 
"  square  work,"  employed  for  the  getting  of  the  magni- 
ficent seam,  varying  from  25  to  36  feet  thick,  called  the 
Dudley  Thick  or  10-yard  coal.  The  shafts  are  sunk  to 
the  bottom  of  the  seam,  and  a  main  way,  the  gate-road^ 
is  carried  forward  in  its  lower  coals,  ventilated  by  means 
of  a  separate  air-head  or  drift  of  very  small  dimensions 
opened  in  the  coal  also,  at  a  few  feet  on  one  side  of,  or 
above  the  gate-road. 

From  this  latter  the  main  workings,  called  sides  of 
work,  are  opened  in  the  form  of  a  square  or  parallelo- 


Fig.  20.  Square  work,  South  Staffordshire.    Scale,  2  chains  to  the  inch. 
A,  bolt-hole ;  B  B,  pillars. 

gram,  50  yards  in  the  side,  or  more,  and  shut  off  by  a 
rib  of  coal  7  or  8  yards  thick,  at  the  least,  from  all 


POST-AND-STALL   WORK.  137 

other  workings,  except  at  the  entrance,  a  narrow  bolt- 
hole.  Driving  out  in  the  lower  coals,  and  gradually 
rising  to  the  higher  ones,  the  colliers  open  stalls  of  5 
to  8  or  10  yards  wide,  forward  and  across,  so  as  to 
leave  square  pillars,  generally  9  or  10  yards  in  the 
side,  and  whenever  the  unsoundness  of  coal  or  roof 
appears  to  require  it,  sparing  additional  supports  of 
coal  in  men-of-war  3  or  4  yards  square. 

The  men  get  at  the  upper  divisions  of  the  seam  by 
standing  on  the  slack  and  coal  already  cut,  or  on  light 
scaffolding.  No  ordinary  timbering  can  be  used  to 
support  so  high  a  roof,  nor  can  the  eye  in  these  vast 
and  murky  chambers  easily  detect  where  special  danger 
threatens  overhead;  but  the  sense  of  hearing  comes 
valuably  into  play,  and  a  sharp  ear  often  catches  the 
preliminary  cracking  which  indicates  the  approach  of 
a  fall.  Nevertheless,  the  work  is  the  most  dangerous 
in  which  the  collier  can  be  engaged ;  and  no  mode  of 
getting  this  coal  with  a  less  serious  destruction  of  life 
by  "  faljs  "  has  been  devised,  except  that  of  working 
it  in  two  "  lifts,"  by  the  long-wall  method,  which,  in 
despite  of  much  opposition,  appears,  at  a  few  works,  to 
have  stood  successfully  the  result  of  many  years' 
practice. 

The  pillars  in  the  "  square  work  "  are  often  in  con- 
clusion thinned  to  a  smaller  size,  and  when  at  length 
the  roof  begins  to  break  in,  the  side  of  work  is 
abandoned,  a  dam  put  into  the  bolt-hole,  and  thus  the 
air  is  excluded  from  the  heaps  of  waste  small  coal, 
and  the  crush  prevented  by  the  ribs  from  extending 
to  other  parts  of  the  pit. 

It  scarcely  needs  to  be  added,  that  although  after 
this  first  working,  operations  may  be  set  on  foot  for 


138  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

getting  ribs  and  pillars,  much,  of  the  coal  is  so  crushed 
or  "  frenzied"  as  to  be  of  little  use.  The  waste  of 
"some  thousands  of  tons  of  coal  per  acre,  and  the  great 
acrifice  of  human  life  in  the  process,  lead  one  to  con- 
template with  no  pride  or  satisfaction  our  mid-English 
working  of  the  finest  seam  of  coal  in  Europe.* 

Some  of  the  coal  seams  of  central  France,  although 
more  broken  up  than  the  last,  are  much  thicker,  and 
have  led  to  many  varieties  of  working,  in  order  to  find 
out  the  safest  and  best.  In  the  Department  of  the 
Seine  et  Loire,  I  learnt  on  a  recent  visit  that  every  other 
mode  has  given  place  to  the  working  by  remblais,  i.e., 
taking  a  horizontal  slice  of  2  metres  in  height  across 
the  seam,  and  filling  up  the  space  with  stone  and 
earth  brought  down  from  the  surface.  At  Montceau, 
near  Blanzy,  I  found  the  seam  to  be  no  less  than  78 
feet  thick,  inclined  at  about  20  degrees.  The  works 
are  carried  forward  horizontally  from  floor  to  roof, 
6  feet  6  inches  high,  alternating  with  "  middlings  "  of 
coal  of  the  same  height ;  and  within  a  few  months  of 
the  working  and  stowage  of  one  horizon,  fresh  openings 
are  made  in  the  range  below,  and  the  remblais  or 
stowage  is  found  to  be  so  closely  packed  as  to  form  a 
very  good  roof  for  driving  under — assuming  the  use  of 
plenty  of  timber.  The  plan  of  the  working  is  in  pillars 
of  10  metres  wide,  which  are  sliced  off  as  in  long-wall 
working. 
The  LONG-WALL  method  may  be  applied,  either  by 

*  The  daily  and  hourly  risk  to  which  the  men  are  subject  in  this 
district  from  falls  of  roof  and  coal  alone  may  be  inferred  from  the 
results  of  the  inspector's  inquiries. 

Deaths  from  "falls"  in  South  Staffordshire  and  East  Worcester- 
shire :— 1856,  88  ;  1857,  81 ;  1858,  97  ;  1859,  92  ;  1860,  75 ;  1861,  78  ; 
1862,79;  1863,55. 


LONG  WORK. 


139 


driving  out  roads  in  the  solid  coal  to  the  extremities, 
and  then  working  back,  leaving  nothing  but  goaf  or  gob 


SCALE  I  INCH  TO  100  YARDS 


Fig.  21.  Long-wall  workings. 

The  portion  A  represents  advancing  stalls,  or  tooth-work,  taking  the  face  of  the  coal ; 
the  side  B  works  in  the  end  of  the  coal,  whilst  the  part  C  D  is  carried  in  a  straight  line 
irrespective  of  the  cleat.  The  double  edge  of  the  gob-roads  represents  the  pack- walls. 

behind,  or,  by  commencing  at  once  near  the  shaft,  to 
work  away  the  mineral,  maintaining  means  of  access  to 
its  fresh  face  by  roads,  artificially  supported,  through 
the  waste.  Beyond  this,  great  differences  occur, 
according  as  to  whether  the  faces  of  work  need  to  be 
straight,  following  the  lines  of  cleat,  or  are  divided 
into  "  stalls,"  or  may  be  set  off  in  several  directions 
at  once.  The  working  faces  are  for  the  most  part  so 
arranged  as  to  advance  against  the  planes  of  cleat ;  but 
there  are  certain  tender  coals  in  which  it  will  be  found 
that  when  the  pit  is  deep,  they  are  upon  this  system 


140  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

much  broken  up  by  the  pressure,  and  that  a  far  better 
proportion  of  round  coal  will  be  obtained  by  working 
on.  the  end,  i.e.,  in  the  direction  of  such  cleat.  The 
most  regularly  laid  out  varieties  of  long- wall  are  those 
of  Shropshire,  Leicestershire,  and  Derbyshire;  but 
others,  more  or  less  modified  to  suit  local  requirements, 
may  be  seen  in  Lancashire,  Somersetshire,  Dean  Forest, 
South  Wales,  Scotland,  Belgium,  and  Saxony. 

Without  exceeding  the  limits  of  a  book  like  the  pre- 
sent, it  would  be  impossible  to  dwell  upon  the  details 
of  the  various  kinds  of  long-work,  but  the  diagram, 
Fig.  21,  may  show  some  of  the  chief  features  of  several 
plans  of  arrangement  diverging  from  one  pair  of  pits. 

In  some  instances  it  will  be  seen  that  a  great  length 
of  face  may  be  opened  in  a  single  line,  as  much  indeed 
as  100  to  400  yards ;  in  others  30,  40,  or  50  yards  of 
straight  face  form  a  stall,  and  one  such  is  followed  up 
closely  by  another.  In  many  instances  again,  the  face 
forms  on  the  large  scale  a  curvilinear  working,  which 
may  be  adopted  when  the  coal  is  not  so  divided  by 
cleat  or  backs  as  to  cut  more  freely  one  way  than 
another. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  "  face  "  or  front 
of  the  working,  which,  as  it  is  but  a  few  feet  or  yards 
away  from  the  waste,  where  the  roof  has  "  come  down," 
requires  to  be  carefully  protected.  The  usual  way  is 
to  plant  a  double  row  of  props  (sometimes  three  rows 
are  needed)  arranged  alternately,  and  at  right  angles  to 
the  roof  and  floor.  Each  prop  takes  a  good  bearing  on 
the  roof,  by  carrying  a  piece  of  wood,  the  lid  or  tymp, 
12  or  15  inches  long,  which  first  receives  the  pressure, 
and  is  soon  squeezed  or  broken.  Cast  iron  has  been 
occasionally  employed  for  the  purpose,  but  the  props 


LONG  WORK. 


141 


are  usually  of  larch,  or,  in  low  seams,  of  oak,  and 
whilst  with  unsound  roofs  they  have  to  be  set  thickly, 
in  the  common  way  they  may  be  many  feet  apart. 
Where  the  heaviest  roof-pressure  is  expected,  nogs  or 
chocks  are  employed  instead  of  single  props  ;  these  are 
pieces  of  timber  2J  to  3  feet  long,  built  up,  two  and 
two,  cross-wise,  thus  giving  a  broad  base  and  summit, 
and  the  advantage  of  being  easily  knocked  asunder  for 
removal.  Suppose  the  coal  now  holed  to  a  sufficient 
depth  all  along  the  face,  the  pressure  of  the  overlying 
mass  will  tend  to  force  it  down,  and  in  some  cases 
actually  saves  the  collier  the  labour  of  falling  the  coal 
by  itself  performing  that  office  in  the  course  of  a  few 
hours.  Otherwise,  by  wedging,  or  blasting,  the  coal  is 
brought  down,  then  broken  up  and  removed.  And  now, 


Fig.  22.  Cross  section  of  long- wall  face. 

all  slack,  unsaleable  coal  and  rubbish  being  thrown 
behind  the  men  into  the  gob  or  waste,  the  back  row  of 
props  is  pulled  out,  and  they  are  set  up  again  in  front 
of  the  fresh  face  of  coal,  when  the  whole  operation 
starts  for  the  succeeding  day  de  novo.  Meanwhile  the 
removal  of  the  coal  from  the  face  towards  the  shaft  is 
a  care  of  the  first  magnitude.  If  the  roof  be  excellent, 
the  coal  strong,  and  tho  out-put  important,  iron  rails 


142  COAL  AND   COAL-MINING. 

(to  be  moved  from  day  to  day)  may  be  laid  along  the 
face,  on  which  the  trams  or  tubs  will  be  cheaply 
conveyed.  But  when,  as  most  frequently  happens ,  this 
advantage  cannot  be  had,  the  coal  has  to  be  dragged 
or  putted  in  sledges  along  the  uneven  floor  in  front  of 
the  fae>e  to  the  nearest  outlet,  and  it  hence  becomes 
necessary  to  have  roads  opening  on  the  face  at  frequent 
intervals.  If  we  are  working  back  from  the  extremities, 
no  more  need  be  said  than  that  the  roads,  as  the  work 
advances,  are  constantly  being  shortened,  and  that  the 
expense  of  their  maintenance  is  thus  diminishing  ;  but 
if  we  follow  the  usual  method,  the  gob-roads,  as  they 
are  called,  are  daily  increased  in  length,  and  the  charges 
of  keeping  them  in  order  become  a  very  heavy  item. 
Tnere  is  then  one  evil  to  be  balanced  against  another ; 
on  the  one  hand  the  expense  of  numerous  gob-roads, 
on  the  other  the  cost  of  putting  the  coal  a  great  distance 
to^get  to  the  road.  A  working  stall  is  for  this  reason 
commonly  from  24  to  50  yards  in  breadth,  so  that  the 
broken  mineral  need  not  be  conveyed  more  than  12  to 
25  yards  to  be  placed  on  a  good  road.  If  the  coal  be 
a  thin  seam  (and  as  little  as  1 1  inches  of  coal  is  thus 
worked  in  the  Radstock  district)  the  roads  must,  for 
efficient  conveyance,  be  cut  higher,  for  which  purpose 
either  the  floor  or  roof  must  have  a  foot  or  two  taken 
off,  whilst  the  material  or  debris  so  broken,  will  help, 
like  "  partings,"  "  dirt-bands,"  and  other  rubbish 
from  the  seam,  to  fill  up  the  waste  or  gob,  and  assist 
in  letting  the  roof  down  gently.  Such  stone,  and  what 
breaks  from  the  roof,  is  often  built  up  in  packs,  or 
masses  of  dry  rubble  walling ;  and  the  roads  which  pass 
through  the  gob  have  thus  to  be  protected  by  a  pack 
wall  of  some  feet  thick  on  either  side.  Management 


LONG   WORK.  H3 

will  do  a  great  deal  in  regulating  this  apparently 
dangerous  work,  for  each  kind  of  roof  needs  to  be 
studied,  that  it  may  be  brought  down  in  the  safest 
manner.  Some  kinds  will  break  short,  so  that  you 
are  insecure  a  single  foot  behind  the  back  props — nay, 
in  bad  cases  will  smash  props  and  everything  up  to  the 
face  of  the  coal ;  others  will  bend  gently  down  to  the 
refuse  or  gobbin,  and  press  the  whole  firmly  together ; 
whilst  certain  rock  roofs  will  hold  up  for  a  long  distance 
unpropped,  but  are  apt  to  break  suddenly  with  a  crash 
which  will  blow  out  all  the  lights  far  and  near,  and  if 
there  be  fire-damp  about,  may  force  it  dangerously  into 
the  roadways. 

The  gob-roads  meanwhile  stand  the  pressure  vari- 
ously ;  in  some  the  floor  rises,  and  has  to  be  frequently 
repaired.  To  this  end,  men  occupied  in  reading  work 
during  the  night,  whilst  the  pit  is  otherwise  clear. 
Or  the  pack  walls  gradually  squeeze  down,  and  the 
roof  requires  to  be  hacked  or  shot  away  to  give  height, 
and,  after  a  time,  the  road  will  be  found  to  be  almost 
entirely  cut  in  the  roof-stone.  In  certain  districts  it 
is  attempted  to  protect  the  roads  by  leaving  a  thin  rib 
of  un worked  coal  on  each  side ;  but  an  unequal  resist- 
ance is  in  this  way  offered,  which  generally  entails  a 
greater  expense  in  the  long  run. 

In  some  of  the  Welsh  and  Forest  of  Dean  collieries 
an  economical  method  is  adopted  for  working  by  the 
long- wall,  and  forming  their  main-level  roads  by  the 
same  process.  Instead  of  driving  a  pair  of  narrow 
levels  as  usual,  a  bold  face  of  work,  20  to  50  yards  in 
breadth,  is  pushed  bodily  forward,  the  requisite  roads 
are  packed  on  both  sides,  and  additionally  fortified, 
when  needed,  by  timber,  whilst  the  space  behind  them, 


144  COAL  AND  COAL-MINING. 

partly  filled  with  refuse,  forms  a  portion  of  tlie  general 
waste  or  gob. 

The  great  advantages  of  the  "  long- work  "  method 
are  simplicity  of  plan  (and  consequently  of  ventilation) 
and  the  entire  removal  of  all  the  coal ;  added  to  which, 
under  most  circumstances,  are  greater  safety  to  the 
men,  and  a  larger  proportion  of  round  coal  in  com- 
parison to  small  or  slack, — a  matter  which,  considering 
the  prices,  is  of  vital  importance  in  the  selection  of  the 
mode  of  working.  It  has  been  mostly  practised  where 
the  seams  are  thin,  or  where  they  contain  a  band  of 
refuse ;  but  neither  condition  is  indispensable  :  for,  on 
the  one  hand,  coals  of  6,  8,  or  9  feet  thick  are  at  the 
present  moment  worked  advantageously  in  this  manner ; 
and  on  the  other,  we  have  seen  bind,  or  stone  debris, 
carried  from  one  seam  to  another,  or  even  taken  down 
from  the  surface  to  assist  in  the  packing  where  it  was 
needful.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  the  roof  be  good, 
although  the  expense  will  be  very  different  according 
to  its  fragility;  but  if  the  operations  be  carried  on 
with  sufficient  smartness  to  push  the  working-place 
daily  under  a  fresh  or  "green  "  roof,  it  may  be  managed 
upon  this  system,  even  when  composed  of  mere  fire- 
clay with  slippery  joints.  Only  a  few  years  have  passed 
since  the  long- wall  was  much  decried,  except  in  a  few 
localities ;  but  its  manifest  economy  is  gradually  intro- 
ducing it  elsewhere ;  and  even  in  some  of  the  deepest 
Durham  collieries  it  is  successfully  applied  to  the 
working  off  of  their  gigantic  pillars ;  whilst  in  a  few 
of  the  pits  near  Dudley  it  has  been  employed  for  re- 
moving bodily  first  the  upper  and  afterwards  the  lower 
half  of  the  10-yard  coal,  with  greatly  increased  yield 
of  coal  and  security  to  life. 


FOST-ANU-STALL   AND   LONG   WORK.  145 

In  Yorkshire  and  in  some  of  the  North- Welsh  col- 
lieries, methods  have  for  a  long  time  been  practised 
which  unite  some  of  the  characters  of  the  pillar  system 
with  a  certain  amount  of  long-wall. 

From  the  main  levels,  which  are  protected  by  suffi- 
ciently massive  ribs  of  coal,  bord-gates  (generally  in 
pairs)  are  driven  up  the  rise  of  the  seam  in  advance  of 
the  main  workings,  and  between  them  banks  are  opened 
in  the  form  of  bords  of  20,  30,  or  40  yards  wide,  and, 
like  the  bord-gates,  worked  across  the  grain  of  the 
coal.  The  roof  of  course  falls  behind  the  men,  so  that 
the  face  has  to  be  protected  by  a  double  row  of  props, 
and  sometimes  by  leaving  small  pillars,  which  are 
mostly  lost.  If  the  ground  is  bad,  pack-walls  are  also 
built. here  and  there,  to  prevent  the  falls  being  too 
sudden;  and  by  similar  walls  an  air- way  is  carried 
along  part  of  the  side  of  the  bank,  so  that  the  venti- 
lating current  shall  pass  along  its  upper  end.  But 
the  roof  here  does  not  settle  in  the  same  uninterrupted 
manner  as  in  the  regular  long- wall  work;  and  the 
establishment  of  a  number  of  separate  goafs  in  prox- 
imity to,  and  generally  below,  the  places  where  the 
colliers  are  working,  renders  outbursts  of  gas  extremely 
dangerous,  and  has  led  to  the  fearful  explosions  of  the 
Ardsley  Oaks,  Darley  Main,  Warren  Vale,  and  Lund- 
hill  collieries. 

Indeed,  so  fraught  with  danger  has  been  this  plan  of 
working — even  where  other  requirements  had  been  duly 
attended  to— that  some  of  the  collieries  of  the  Yorkshire 
district  have  been  recently  changed  into  long -wall 
workings,  and  apparently  with  very  advantageous  re- 
Bults.  And  under  this  head  we  must  remember  that, 
Bince  the  distribution  and  quantity  of  the  ventilating 


146  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

air  will  depend  upon  the  arrangement  of  the  workings, 
a  very  serious  responsibility  attaches  to  the  selection 
of  the  method  most  suitable  to  the  character  of  the 
strata  and  to  the  expected  magnitude  of  a  nascent 
colliery. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND. 

WHEN,  in  the  early  periods  of  coal-mining,  the  works 
extended  but  a  short  distance  from  the  bhaf  cs,  and  only 
small  quantities  of  mineral  were  extracted,  it  used — as 
in  many  small  works  of  the  present  day — to  be  con- 
veyed by  dragging  in  sleds,  or  sledges,  along  the  some- 
what slippery  floor  of  the  seam. 

In  some  districts  the  ruder  method  of  carrying  in 
baskets  was  practised,  as  even  now  in  Spain  and  South 
America,  and  this  toilsome  work  ceased  to  be  per- 
formed by  women  "  bearers "  in  Scotland  only  in 
1843.  In  other  pits  barrows  were  employ bd,  the 
wheel  running  upon  a  plank  called  the  barrow-way. 

The  sledges  have  to  be  still  commonly  used  in  put- 
ting the  coal  along  the  face  of  the  workings  to  the 
better  roads :  but  in  all  large  pits  the  conveyance  along 
the  main  ways  has  for  a  century  past  been  conducted 
on  constantly  improving  methods. 

The  Germans  were  ahead  of  us  in  the  introduction  of 
wooden  rails  underground ;  for  in  1550 — as  described 
and  figured  by  George  Agricola,  in  his  folio  "  De  re 
Metallica" — we  find  a  rectangular  iron-bound  waggon, 
with  four  small  wheels  beneath  it,  and  a  projecting 


CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND.          147 

pin  to  run  between  the  rails  and  thus  guide  the  move- 
ment. It  is  still  called  the  hund,  or  dog,  and  is 
in  common  use  in  parts  of  Prussia,  Saxony,  and 
Austria. 

About  1630,  "  one  Master  Beaumont,  a  gentleman 
of  great  ingenuity  and  rare  parts/'  went  to  the  New- 
castle district  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  various 
mechanical  improvements,  among  which  were  wooden 
rails  for  the  running  of  wheeled  waggons ;  and  although 
he  failed  as  a  speculator,  these  rails  appear  to  have 
been  a  good  deal  applied  within  the  following  century, 
both  in  these  collieries,  those  of  Whitehaven,  and  in 
the  lead  mines  of  Alston  Moor.  They  are  described  by 
M.  Jars,  in  1765,  as  in  use,  with  flanged  wheels,  both 
in  the  pits  and  for  conveyance  to  the  shipping  places. 

Mr.  John  Curr,  of  Sheffield,  in  his  "  Coal  Viewer 
and  Engine-Builder's  Practical  Companion,"  1797, 
states 'that  twenty-one  years  before  that  time  he  had 
introduced  at  the  Sheffield  Colliery  the  use  of  railroads 
and  corves.  At  that  period,  u  till  of  late,"  the  prevail- 
ing practice  in  the  Newcastle  collieries  was  to  draw  a 
single  corf  on  a  sled  from  the  workings  to  the  shaft ; 
but  lately  the  viewers  have  "  introduced  wooden  rails, 
or  waggon-ways,  underground  (Newcastle  roads),  and 
fixed  a  frame  upon  wheels,  capable  of  receiving  two  or 
three  of  their  basket  corves,  then  drawn  by  one  horse." 
But  Curr  laid  cast-iron  tram-plates  %  inch  thick,  and 
employed  waggons,  or  tubs,  with  10-inch  wheels,  and 
carrying  5J  cwts.  of  coal.  A  horse  generally,  he  states, 
takes  twelve  of  these  "  corves  "  at  a  draught,  and  for  a 
moderate  day's  work  conveys  the  quantity  of  150  tons 
the  distance  of  220  yards. 

The  wooden  rails  and  Curr's  tram-plates,  besides 
L2 


148  COAL  IND  COAL-MINING. 

performing  useful  service  underground,  were  largely 
employed  for  the  transit  of  coal  at  the  surface,  and  it 
was  thus  that  the  miners  of  the  North  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  modern  railway  system,  which  in  the  last 
half  century  has  been  brought  to  its  present  perfection 
and  world-wide  usefulness  chiefly  by  the  agency  of  the 
same  class  of  men.  A  railway  was  constructed  in 
1789,  at  Loughborough,  by  Mr.  William  Jessop,  of 
Derbyshire,  with  cast-iron  edge  rails,  intended  for  a 
flange  on  the  waggon-wheel;  and  rails  of  wrought- 
iron  were  at  length  invented  in  1820,  by  Mr.  Birken- 
shaw,  and  were  rolled  at  Bedlington,  near  Newcastle. 

My  esteemed  friend,  the  late  Mr.  Nicholas  Wood, 
after  a  long  series  of  experiments  made  in  conjunction 
with  his  associate  Mr.  George  Stephenson,  published 
in  1825  a  practical  work  on  "The  Establishment  and 
Economy  of  Railways;  "  and  more  recently,  in  1855, 
prepared  a  most  valuable  treatise  on  the  conveyance 
of  coals  underground  in  coal  mines.  To  this  excellent 
paper,  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Northern 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  and  based  on  a  vast 
number  of  examples  and  experiments,  I  must  refer 
the  reader  for  farther  details  on  this  important 
subject. 

The  conditions  under  which  the  roadways  of  a  mine 
are  placed,  their  frequent  sinuosity  and  unevenness, 
the  confined  space,  and  the  tendency  to  disturbance 
both  in  the  roof  and  floor,  render  it  impossible  to  com- 
pete in  economy  with  railways  laid  upon  the  surface. 
Moreover,  certain  requirements,  in  connection  with 
the  raising  of  the  mineral  in  the  shafts,  have  to  be 
kept  in  view,  and  necessitate  the  use  of  particular 
kinds  of  waggon. 


CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND.  149 

Until  within  a  few  years  past  the  northern  method 
was  to  fill  the  coals,  at  or  near  the  face,  into  a  large 
basket  (corve)  of  wicker,  having  an  iron  bow,  and  to 
drag  it  on  a  small  carriage,  or  tram,  generally  by  a 
pony,  to  the  crane-place  on  the  main  road,  where  it 
was  lifted,  and  placed  with  several  others,  on  a  rolley, 
or  larger  waggon,  on  which  they  were  then  drawn  by  a 
horse  to  the  pit  bottom,  whence  they  were  raised  to  the 
surface,  whilst  the  rolley  returned  with  a  load  of  empty 
corves. 

In  the  central  districts  the  principle  remains  even 
now  much  the  same;  instead  of  the  corve  a  skip, 
having  a  strong  bow  of  wrought-iron  for  raising  it,  is 
placed  on  a  trolley,  and  loaded  with  coal,  by  having 
several  broad  iron  rings  placed  loosely  over  it,  within 
which  the  lumps  are  stacked  up.  It  is  then  wheeled 
away  to  the  shaft,  where  it  is  hooked  on  to  the  rope  or 
chain  by  the  bow. 

In  Somersetshire  and  in  Belgium  the  method 
generally  in  use,  until  very  lately,  was  to  convey  the 
coal  in  waggons  to  the  shaft,  where  it  was  capsized 
into  a  great  iron  bucket,  holding  about  a  ton,  called 
the  kudge  (cuffat,  Belg.),  which  was  then  drawn  up  the 
shaft,  and  had  to  be  again  unloaded  at  the  bank. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  up  the  variations  in  these 
modes,  which  are  applied  to  the  conveyance  of  the 
mineral  in  different  coalfields,  but  we  may  usefully 
glance  at  the  steps  which,  within  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  have  totally  revolutionised  the  methods  of  all 
our  larger  British  collieries.  When  the  cast  metal 
tram-plates  came  into  vogue,  the  old  broad  wheels  of 
the  waggons,  or  rolleys,  were  superseded  by  cast 
wheels,  fined  off  very  sharply  at  the  periphery,  iu 


150 


COAL    A,ND    COAL-MINING. 


order  to  diminish  the  friction ;  and  these  are  still 
extensively  retained  at  many  works  of  importance, 
partly  from  want  of  appreciation  of  the  newer  methods, 
partly  from  the  desire  to  fully  utilise  the  materials  of 
an  old-established  plant. 

As  the  scale  of  operations  increased,  the  expenses 
attaching  to  the  use  of  corves  were  found  to  be  so 
serious  as  to  lead  to  the  resumption  of  small  wooden 
waggons  or  tubs,  with  wheels  of  8  to  15  inches 
diameter,  which  are  run  from  the  face  of  the  coal  to 
the  pit  bottom,  without  the  delay  and  cost  of  lifting  a 
smaller  into  a  larger  carriage,  and  without  involving 
the  other  great  objection  of  unloading  and  loading,  to 
which  some  of  the  methods  are  open.  It  appears,  at 
first  sight,  undesirable  to  have  to  raise  in  the  shaft  the 
weight  of  the  rolling  apparatus,  the  wheels,  axles, 
coupling-chains,  &c. ;  but  the  preponderating  advan- 
tage of  running  the  same  waggons  throughout,  and 
the  facility  of  raising  them  at  high  velocity  through 
the  pit  by  the  application  of  cages  and  guides,  have 
been  universally  established  as  a  successful  innovation, 
in  the  Northern  and  many  of  the  larger  works  of  other 
coal  districts. 

When  the  seam  is  thick  and  roof  good,  the  tubs 
may,  as  above  stated,  be  taken  close  up  to  the  face  of 
work ;  but  the  more  the  actual  present  workings  are 
hampered  by  lowness  and  want  of  room,  the  higher 
will  be  the  expenses  of  putting,  &c.,  in  addition  to 
carriage  along  the  main  ways.  This  work  used  to  be  car- 
ried on  almost  exclusively  by  boys,  but  in  the  Northern 
collieries  great  numbers  of  Shetland  and  other  ponies, 
of  3^  to  4  feet  high,  driven  by  younger  boys,  are 
employed  for  bringing  the  coal  from  the  face  to  the 


CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND.          161 

horse-roads  or  the  engine-planes.  Where  very  thin 
seams  are  worked,  as  in  the  Somerset  coalfield,  the 
cost  of  "  carting,"  as  it  is  called,  becomes  very  onerous. 
The  height  of  the  coals,  averaging  between  1 3  and  28 
inches,  scarcely  leaves  room  in  the  lower  places  to  go 
on  all  fours,  and  renders  the  work  so  laborious  that, 
although  the  distances  are  not  very  great,  it  costs 
from  Sd.  to  Is.  $d.  on  the  ton  to  cart  the  coal  from  the 
face  through  the  tramways  and  branch  roads  to  the 
main  level. 

The  movement  of  the  carriages  on  the  roads  is 
retarded  by  three  kinds  of  resistance  :  1st,  the  friction 
of  the  periphery  of  the  wheels  on  the  plates  or  rails  ; 
2nd,  the  attrition  on  the  axles ;  and  3rd,  the  rubbing, 
by  oscillation  of  the  waggon,  of  the  face  of  the  wheels 
against  the  flange  of  the  tram-plate,  or  the  flange  of 
the  wheel  against  the  upright  rail.  The  first  is  dimi- 
nished either  by  narrowing  the  edge  of  the  wheels,  or 
by  running  broad  wheels  on  edge  rails,  and  by  increas- 
ing the  diameter  of  the  wheels ;  the  second,  by  careful 
make,  using  steel  axles  and  efficient  lubrication  ;  the 
third,  by  making  the  wheels  fast  to  the  axle,  instead 
of  having  them  loose  upon  it,  by  straightening  the 
road,  and  by  adopting  a  suitable  form  either  of  bridge 
or  -headed  rail. 

In  thin  seams  the  tubs,  or  waggons,  must  neces- 
sarily be  low,  and  the  wheels  small,  but  even  in  seams 
of  ordinary  height,  the  convenience  of  keeping  the 
total  weight  so  moderate  that  the  putter  can  readily 
place  his  tub  on  the  rails  when  it  gets  displaced,  and 
that  the  onsetter  and  banksmen  can  easily  handle  and 
run  the  tubs  on  the  iron  plates  at  the  bottom  and  top 
of  the  shaft,  give  the  preference  in  Northern  practice  to 


152 


COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 


tubs  weighing  not  more  than  3  or  4  cwt.,  and  carrying 
from  6  to  9  cwt.  of  coal.  At  Seaton  Delaval  and 
neighbouring  pits,  the  tubs  weigh  3J  cwt.  each,  and 
hold  11  to  12  cwt.,  but  these  require  exceptionally 
strong  men  to  handle  them  with  the  requisite  rapidity. 
In  the  South,  carts,  or  trams,  of  much  greater  weight, 
sometimes  of  iron,  are  often  employed,  carrying  a 
weight  of  a  ton ;  but,  in  such  cases,  the  number  is 
smaller,  or  conveyance  and  winding  in  the  shaft  are 
generally  slower,  and  long  delays  are  caused  by  getting 
off  the  rails. 

The  tub  most  generally  used  has  an  oak  framing 
below,  on  which  the  bottom  and  sides,  of  f  men  or  inch 


Fig.  23.  Collierj'  tubs :  1  inch  to  4  feet. 


oak,  or  other  strong  wood,  are  attached,  with  corner 
pieces  of  iron  to  strengthen  them,  and  a  light  bar  of 
iron  passing  from  end  to  end  upon  the  Naming,  with  ?i 
hook  at  one  extremity  and  coupling  chain  at  the  other. 


CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND. 


153 


When  the  box  part  has  vertical  sides,  the  wheels  are 
placed  below,  and  are  only  8  to  12  inches  diameter ;  but 
when  it  is  narrowed  below,  the  wheels  may  be  set 
outside,  and  are  15  to  18  inches  diameter.  They  are 
generally  fixed  to  the  axle,  but  sometimes  are,  as  well 
as  the  axle,  made  to  turn.  The  form,  in  fact,  must 
depend  partly  on  the  roads,  and  partly  on  the  varieties 
of  coal  to  be  conveyed ;  but  it  would  be  manifestly 
inconvenient,  in  a  colliery  where  a  large  traffic  exists, 
to  have  carriages  of  diiferent  sizes  and  shapes. 

For  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  weight  low,  and  at 
the  same  time  employing  large  wheels,  M.  Cabany,  the 


Fig.  24. 

ingenious  director  of  the  great  collieries  of  Anzin,  lias 
constructed  the  modification  of  elbow-axle,  shown  in 
Fig.  24,  which,  he  states,  can  be  repaired  at  half  the 
cost  of  the  common  elbow-axle.  The  mode  of  attach- 
ment of  the  wheel  is  shown  in  the  figure,  and  the 
waggon  is  made  to  belly  out  above  it,  to  increase  the 
capacity  on  a  narrow  gauge. 


154 


COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 


The  main  levels  of  a  mine  are  generally  carried  too 
horizontally  to  allow  the  loaded  waggons  in  one  direc- 
tion, and  the  empties  in  the  other,  to  be  drawn  by  a 
perfectly  equal  force.  In  order  to  have  the  resistance 
equal  in  both  directions,  the  empty  tub  being  3  cwt., 
and  the  loaded  one  12  cwt,  and  the  friction  -g^th  of  the 
weight,  the  inclination  would  have  to  be  1  in  133,  and 
if  the  friction  be  -gV^h,  would  be  1  in  160. 

Mr.  Wood  found  in  his  experiments  that  a  horse 
dragging  a  carriage  on  a  level  railroad  at  surface  will 
give  a  useful  performance  of  6i?  tons  for  20  miles,  or 
133  tons  for  one  mile  per  day,  which  forms  a  conve- 
nient maximum  standard  for  judging  of  this — the  most 
general  means  of  conveyance,  as  carried  out  in  various 
mines.  Actual  practical  trials  in  several  pits  gave  the 
following  results :  — 


Locality. 

Diameter 
of  wheel. 

Inches. 

Inclination 
of  road. 

Weight  of  tram. 

Number 
of  trams 
at  once. 

Tons  per 
mile  per 
horse. 

Loaded. 
Cwt. 

Empty. 
Cwt. 

1.  Elemore  Colliery 

12 

1  in  130 

12-5 

4 

14 

29-75 

Ditto     .     . 

12 

1  in  202 

12-5 

4 

14 

51-23 

2.  Hetton     .     .     . 

8 

1  in  130 

12-5 

4 

9 

30-6 

3.  Andrew's  House 

10-25 

1  in  222 

13 

5-3 

11 

54-15 

4.  Marley  Hill  .     . 

10 

J    n  144 

13 

5 

31-6 

5.  Springwell    .     . 

10 

Level. 

11-5 

3-5 

6 

15-26 

Similar  trials  made  in  South  Wales,  where  the  work 
was  done  by  drawing  3  to  7  larger  trams,  weighing 
when  loaded  25  to  32  cwt.  each,  with  wheels  from  17  to 
21  inches  diameter,  principally  along  water-levels,  but 
in  part  along  inclined  headings,  gave  results  of  from 
10  to  17*8  tons  per  mile  as  the  day's  work  of  a  horse. 

These  surprisingly  different  amounts  of  useful  effect 
depend  in  great  part  on  the  arrangements  as  well  as 


CONVEYANCE  UNDERGROUND.  155 

the  condition  of  the  roads.  If  only  a  single  line  of  rails, 
with  passing  places,  be  employed,  much  delay  ensues ; 
and  if  the  distances  travelled  are  short,  and  the 
stoppages  at  the  termini  more  frequent,  there  must  be 
a  similar  disadvantage. 

In  the  2nd  and  4th  examples  above  cited,  the  horses 
were  particularly  strong  and  in  good  condition,  and  yet 
the  result  falls  so  strangely  short  of  what  can  be 
accomplished  at  the  surface,  as  to  give  great  weight 
to  Mr.  Wood's  corollary,  that  it  becomes  daily  more 
important  to  substitute,  as  at  the  surface  so  also 
underground,  engine-power  for  the  costly  stable  of  60 
or  80  horses,  which  otherwise  has  to  be  maintained  in 
the  larger  collieries. 

When  the  coal,  as  usual,  is  worked  from  the  main- 
ways  up  the  rise  of  the  seam,  if  the  inclination  be  as 
much  as  1  in  30,  inclined  planes  (jinny  roads,  or  jig- 
brows)  come  into  use,  where  by  aid  of  a  drum  or  sheave 
at  the  upper  end,  regulated  by  a  brake,  the  loaded  tubs 
run  down  by  their  own  weight,  and  pull  up  the  empty 
ones.  Or  the  descent  may  be  checked,  and  the  ascent 
assisted,  by  the  use  of  a  counterbalance  tub  suitably 
loaded.  The  sheave  for  this  purpose  may,  according  to 
the  nature  of  the  work,  be  so  fixed,  by  the  aid  of 
wooden  props,  as  to  be  easily  removed  forward  as  the 
workings  advance.  This  is,  of  course,  a  very  inex- 
pensive mode  of  conveying  the  coals,  and  is  sometimes 
applicable  for  very  long  distances  ;  although,  for  the 
avoidance  of  accidents,  it  is  needful  then  to  establish  a 
very  strict  discipline  as  to  signalling  when  the  train  of 
tubs  is  to  be  set  running,  and  also  to  have  side  stalls 
cut  out  here  and  there  for  the  safety  of  those  men  who 


156  COAL   AJfD    COAL-MIKING. 

may  happen  to  be  travelling  the  plane  at  the  time.  In 
the  rudest  of  such  inclines,  a  boy  goes  down  with  the 
sled,  digging  his  heels  into  the  floor  by  way  of  a  drag ; 
whilst  in  large  and  well-laid-out  collieries,  a  regular 
series  of  such  inclines,  fitted  with  substantial  brake 
drums,  wire  ropes,  and  friction  rollers  for  them  to  run 
upon,  vie  with  the  best  of  inclined  planes  to  be  seen  at 
the  surface. 

A  contrivance  of  great  ingenuity,  Fowler's  clip- 
pulley,  has  been  most  successfully  used  by  the  Messrs. 
Pease  at  the  Upleatham  mines  for  two  years  past,  and 
appears  to  be  capable  of  extended  application  in  the 
working  of  inclines  and  engine  planes  in  collieries  also. 
Its  advantages  are  that  the  rope  need  only  to  be  passed 
simply  over  the  periphery  of  the  wheel,  instead  of 
being  coiled  or  lapped  round  it  as  on  a  drum;  that  it 
then  holds  the  rope  more  equably  and  advantageously 
without  flattening  the  wires  or  grinding  them  against 
one  another,  and  that  it  prevents  a  surging  movement. 
The  movable  clips  on  the  circumference,  which  em- 
brace the  rope,  clutch  it  so  tightly,  that  on  a  double 
incline,  one  set  of  tubs  may  be  thrown  off — as  by  the 
breakage  of  the  rope — and  yet  it  is  capable  of  sustain- 
ing the  other. 

When,  however,  the  coal  has  to  be  brought  up  by 
"down-hills,"  or  roads  driven  below  level,  the  labour 
thrown  upon  men  at  windlasses,  or  upon  horses  drag- 
ging carriages,  is  so  great  as  to  be  inconsistent  with 
extensive  working  ;  and,  under  these  circumstances,  it 
is  usual  to  employ  engine-power,  either  through  the 
instrumentality  of  a  rope  passed  from  the  surface  down 
the  pit  (as  at  Monkwearmouth),  or  by  fixed  under- 


CONVEYANCE    UNDERGROUND.  157 

ground  engines  worked  by  steam  transmitted  from  the 
surface  (as  at  Killirigworth),  or  generated  in  boilers 
near  them,*  or  worked  by  compressed  air. 

If  the  inclination  of  a  down-brow  be  not  less  than  1 
in  28,  the  empty  tubs,  in  running  down,  will  drag  out 
with  them  the  rope  from  the  drum  of  a  fixed  engine ; 
but  if  it  be  less,  they  must  be  provided  with  a  tail-rope 
passing  round  a  sheave  at  the  bottom  of  the  incline,  by 
which  they  will  be  hauled  down  again.  These  arrange- 
ments have  long  been  practised,  but  not  many  years 
have  elapsed  since  the  last  method  came  into  use 
instead  of  horse  power,  for  hauling  the  coals  along  the 
main  ways  which  approximate  to  the  horizontal.  It 
is  still  only  in  the  larger  collieries,  and  those  in  which 
due  care  has  been  bestowed  on  the  straightness  and 
regularity  of  the  roads,  that  this  improvement  has  been 
introduced;  but  its  value  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that,  in  certain  instances,  as  many  as  70  or  80 
horses,  with  their  drivers,  stablemen,  &c.,  are  dispensed 
with,  and  that  a  small  fixed  engine  actually  hauls 
along  a  nearly  level  plane  of  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length, 
trains  of  from  50  to  100  tubs  at  a  time,  at  an  average 
speed  of  9  miles  an  hour.  The  employment  of  a  tail- 
rope  (usually  of  i  to  |  the  circumference  of  the  main 
rope)  enables  the  train  to  be  pulled  over  the  undula- 
tions of  gradient  which  cannot  but  generally  occur  even 

*  I  owe  to  Mr.  C.  Tylden  "Wright  the  following  example  from  a 
part  of  Shireoak  colliery  : — Inclined  plane  of  800  yards  long  below  pit 
bottom,  gradient  1  in  50 ;  train  of  25  tubs  at  a  time,  drawn  at  speed  of 
8  to  10  miles  per  hour  by  a  f-ineh  steel  wire-rope,  stretched  by  a  4-foot 
Fowler's  clip-drum,  and  worked  by  two  12-inch  cylinders,  2  feet  stroke. 
Average  cost,  calculated  from  30,000  tons  conveyed  in  six  months, 
one  penny  per  ton,  including  wear  and  tear  of  rope  and  all  labour. 


158  COAL    AUD    COAL-MINING. 

in  the  best  underground  roadways.  Where  these 
inequalities,  and  where  curves  interfere,  they  must  be 
met  by  a  sufficiency  of  rollers  and  of  sheaves  to  protect 
the  ropes  from  injury. 

In  certain  works  the  engine-road  has  been  fitted  with 
an  endless  rope,  passing,  of  course,  round  sheaves  at  the 
extremities,  and  to  which  the  trains  of  tubs  are  hitched 
or  clamped  at  intervals.  The  comparison  of  this  with 
the  other  method  is  still  the  subject  of  discussion ;  but, 
although  very  serviceable  as  contrasted  with  horse- 
work,  it  has  not  been  shown  to  attain  to  the  amount  of 
efficiency  and  economy  exhibited  by  the  engine  "  planes  " 
of  such  collieries  as  Hetton,  Seaton  Delaval,  Pel  ton, 
Black  Boy,  &c. 

Regularity  of  action  and  compactness  being  two  main 
essentials,  the  favourite  engines  for  this  purpose  have 
two  horizontal  cylinders  resting  on  bed-plates,  and  a 
heavy  fly-wheel.  But  the  form  of  the  engine  is  hardly  so 
important  as  the  question  of  the  mode  of  supply  of 
steam,  for  the  boiler-fires  are  in  some  situations  a  source 
of  intolerable  heat  and  of  certain  risk.  It  has  been, 
however,  shown  in  practice,  that  where  it  is  incon- 
venient to  place  the  boilers  near  the  engine,  they  may  be 
at  surface ;  and  if  8  or  10-inch  pipes,  properly  clothed, 
are  used  to  transmit  it,  there  will  be  no  substantial 
diminution  in  the  elasticity  of  the  steam  in  the  receiver 
for  the  cylinders  at  the  pit-bottom.  In  some  instances 
the  steam  has  been  transmitted  for  above  1,000  yards, 
with  a  good  result  depending  much  on  the  sufficient 
diameter  of  the  pipes ;  in  others,  compressed  air  has 
been  forced  for  a  distance  of  several  hundred  yards  with 
a  very  trifling  loss  of  pressure.  And  thus,  by  one  means 
or  the  other,  engine  power  becomes  available  to  all 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN    THE    SHAFTS.  159 

those  who,  instead  of  dealing,  as  in  the  old  time,  with  a 
few  score  of  corves,  have  to  run  several  hundred  tons  of 
coal,  or  in  other  words  some  1,500  or  2,000  waggons, 
u-day,  to  the  bottom  of  their  shaft. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

RAISING   THE   MINERAL   IN   THE   SHAFTS. 

A  FEW  steps  only,  and  of  a  simple  kind,  appear  to 
intervene  between  the  modes  of  slowly  winding  up 
small  quantities  of  coal  in  the  pits  three  centuries  ago, 
and  the  vehement,  yet  well-disciplined  extraction  of 
the  present  day.  But  although  the  improvements  have 
not  been  marked  by  any  startling  inventions,  they 
have  only  been  rendered  possible  by  the  simultaneous 
advancement  of  the  other  mechanical  arts.  And  even 
now,  it  is  solely  under  favourable  conditions  that  the 
greatest  eminence  is  attained,  and  we  need  but  to  travel 
a  few  miles  into  the  hills  from  some  of  the  noble  col- 
lieries of  Durham  or  of  Lancashire  to  see,  near  the 
outcrops  of  the  seams,  little  works  carried  on  for  local 
or  land  sale,  where  the  apparatus,  if  not  the  ways  and 
language  of  the  people,  will  recall  the  days  of  a  pristine 
simplicity. 

As  long  as  manual  labour  is  employed  for  the  raising, 
it  may  be  of  a  few  tons  of  coal  per  diem,  the  windlass 
and  a  round  hempen  rope  are  the  means  commonly 
used.  In  the  hills  of  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire, 
a  pinion  on  the  crank  axle  works  a  toothed  wheel  on 
the  barrel  axle ;  and  thus,  by  giving  a  slower  motion, 


160  COAL    Altl)   COAL-MINING. 

enables  a  man  or  two  at  the  surface  to  raise  a  greater 
weight  at  once,  and  thus  to  keep  even  with  several  who 
.are  working  below.  With  a  depth  of  30  or  40  ynrdp,  a 
more  economical  power  has  to  be  brought  into  play. 

For  horse  work  the  invariable  arrangement  is  to  erect 
the  "  wheel-and-axle"  kind  of  machine  called  a  horse- 
gin,  or  whim,  and  consisting  of  a  rope-drum  built  round 
a  vertical  axis,  the  foot  of  which  turns  on  a  stone  or 
iron  casting,  and  the  head  pivot  of  which  is  supported 
by  a  long  "  span-beam,"  resting  at  the  extremities 
upon  inclined  legs.  The  horses  are  attached  to  one  or 
both  ends  (according  as  power  may  be  needed)  of  a 
strong  horizontal  beam,  generally  30  to  36  feet  long, 
which  embraces  the  vertical  axis  close  beneath  the 
drum,  which  is  12  to  16  feet  diameter.  The  ropes, 
passing  off  from  opposite  sides  of  the  drum,  are  con- 
ducted over  little  gmde-pullQjs— jackanapes — to  the 
sheaves  set  in  the  shaft-frame  overhanging  the  pit. 

Although  very  largely  employed  in  metalliferous 
mines,  the  horse-gin  is  now  seen  in  colliery  districts 
only  during  the  sinking  of  pits,  or  permanently  em- 
ployed at  shallow  works  doing  a  very  small  trade.  In 
the  last  century,  before  the  introduction  of  the  Boulton- 
and-Watt  engine,  it  was  in  very  abundant  use  in  the 
English  and  Scotch  coalfields,  and  we  have,  in  the 
travels  of  M.  Jars,  an  account  of  a  powerful  horse 
machine  newly  completed  in  1765,  for  raising  the  coal 
at  Walker  Colliery,  100  fathoms  deep.  It  was  put  in 
motion  by  eight  horses  kept  at  a  sharp  trot,  and  by 
means  of  a  large  horizontal  toothed  wheel  giving  a 
greater  velocity  to  the  rope-drum,  lifted  a  corve  of 
coals  in  two  minutes  :  but,  unfortunately  for  the  result, 
the  corve  held  only  6  cwt. !  The  simple  gin,  therefore, 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN    THE    SHAFTS.  161 

worked  by  two  or  four  horses,  remained  the  commoD 
machine  for  small  depths. 

It  is  only  in  districts  more  hilly  than  most  of  our 
coalfields  that  the  streams  flow  with  a  sufficient  fall  to 
give  a  useful  amount  of  water-power ;  but  the  conve- 
nient way  in  which  the  drum  could  be  built  upon  the 
prolonged  axis  of  a  water-wheel  led  to  that  arrangement 
being  commonly  adopted  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  even  where  the  supply  of  water  had  to  be  raised 
by  a  special  Newcomen  or  atmospheric  steam-engine. 
Many  attempts  were  made  to  convert  the  alternating 
jerky  action  of  this  engine  into  the  rotatory  motion 
needed  for  winding,  but  to  very  little  purpose.  Smeaton 
meanwhile  lessened  the  consumption  of  water,  and 
thus  reduced  the  expense.  The  wheels  had  been  made 
with  a  double  row  of  buckets,  each  row  opening  oppo- 
sitely to  the  other,  so  that  when  motion  had  to  be 
reversed,  the  supply  of  water  was  cut  off  by  a  valve  and 
laid  on  the  other  way,  and  thus  the  wheel  turned  in  the 
opposite  direction.  Smeaton  applied  reversing  gear  of 
strong  toothed  wheels  to  the  drum,  so  that  the  wheel 
could  always  revolve  in  the  same  direction,  and  the 
turning  of  the  drum  only  be  reversed. 

In  "Wales,  another  mode  of  employing  water-power 
came  into  use,  which  is  still  to  be  seen  at  many  of  the 
collieries,  as  well  as  some  of  the  slate  quarries,  where 
this  cheap  power  is  abundant.  A  large  sheave  fitted 
with  a  powerful  brake  is  fixed  above  the  pit-top,  and 
has  a  rope  or  chain  passing  round  it,  to  one  end  of 
which  is  attached  an  empty  cistern  carrying  over  it  a 
waggon  of  coal,  to  the  other  a  cistern  which,  when 
filled  with  water,  is  heavier  than  the  loaded  waggon 
and  empty  cistern  together.  Suppose  now  the  former 

M 


162  COAL    ANf)    COAL- MINING. 

is  at  bank,  the  latter  at  the  pit-bottom  ;  the  cistern  is 
filled  from  a  tank  placed  close  by,  and  is  regulated  in 
its  descent  by  the  brake ;  when  it  reaches  the  bottom  a 
self-acting  valve  is  opened,  which  lets  the  water  flow 
out,  either  to  escape  by  the  adit  or  to  be  raised  by  the 
pumping-engine  :  meanwhile  the  loaded  waggon  is 
taken  off  the  empty  cistern,  and  by  the  time  the  latter 
is  filled  with  water  from  the  same  tank,  the  cistern  at 
the  bottom  has  been  emptied  and  a  waggon  of  coal 
placed  upon  it ;  and  thus  the  action  is  reversed,  and  a 
cheap,  although  slowly-working  machine,  kept  in  reci- 
procating movement. 

The  chief  forward  step  was  made  when  Watt's 
double-acting  engine,  having  the  steam  applied  al- 
ternately on  both  sides  of  the  piston,  rendered  it 
feasible  to  apply  a  rapid  rotatory  motion.  In  the 
smaller  engines,  and  such,  in  fact,  as  are  in  work  at 
the  great  majority  of  the  collieries  of  our  central  and 
western  districts,  the  motion  is  communicated  from 
the  main  crank-shaft,  through  the  intervention  of 
toothed  wheels,  to  a  drum-shaft  placed  also  horizontally, 
and  to  which  a  lower  velocity  is  given.  The  ropes,  or 
chains,  wound  in  opposite  directions  on  the  drum,  are 
carried  over  pulleys  either  down  a  single  pit,  or  to 
two  different  pits,  and  thus,  with  their  respective 
cages  or  skips,  exercise  a  counterbalancing  effect  upon 
one  another.  This  arrangement  is  particularly  suitable 
to  the  slow  winding  of  our  midland  districts,  where  the 
weight  drawn  at  once  is  considerable,  and  where  from 
its  hanging  free  in  the  shaft,  a  great  velocity  would  be 
dangerous. 

But  in  the  larger  collieries,  where  rapidity  is  essential, 
two  different  forms  of  engine  have  for  some  years  been 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN    THE    SHAFTS.  163 

in  use.  First,  a  large  vertical  cylinder,  from  which  the 
piston  rod  acts  direct  upon  the  drum  shaft,  and  the 
drum,  being  often  16,  18,  or  even  20  feet  in  diameter 
at  the  first  lap  of  the  rope,  communicates  to  the  load  a 
velocity  of  from  10  to  20  feet  in  a  second.  The  second 
is  the  engine  of  two  cylinders  placed  horizontally, 
acting  also — it  may  be,  directly— on  the  drum,  and 
from  their  reciprocating  action  on  the  crank,  intro- 
ducing great  regularity  of  motion. 

As  examples  of  some  of  the  more  powerful  engines 
employed  for  these  purposes  at  British  works,  may  be 
mentioned, — 

Monkwearmouth  ;  vertical  cylinder,  65 £  inches  diameter, 
7  feet  stroke  ;  depth,  286  fathoms,  or  1,716  feet ; 
wire  flat  rope ;  useful  load,  4  tubs,  with  9  cwt.  of 
coal  each;  time  of  raising,  \\  minute. 

Dukinfieldj  Cheshire;  No.  1  pit;  vertical  cylinder,  60 
inches  diameter ;  stroke,  7  feet ;  low  pressure ; 
flat  wire  rope ;  load,  4  tubs,  with  8  cwt.  of  coal 
each.  No.  2  ;  cylinder,  48  inches  diameter ;  stroke, 
6  feet ;  high  pressure  ;  drawing  depth,  678  yards, 
or  2,034  feet ;  time,  70  to  90  seconds. 

North  Seaton;  vertical  cylinder,  60  inches  diameter; 
stroke,  7  feet ;  depth,  124  fathoms ;  flat  wire  rope; 
load,  4  tubs,  with  50  cwt. ;  weight  of  steel  cage, 
25  cwt. ;  time,  35  seconds. 

CinderAill,  Notts.  (1852);  vertical  cylinder,  32  inches 
diameter ;  5  feet  stroke ;  depth,  250  yards,  or  750 
feet ;  flat  hemp  rope  (wire  in  upcast) :  load,  12 
cwt.  of  coal ;  time  of  drawing,  40  seconds. 

Kirkless  Hall  (California  pit),  Wigan ;  two  coupled 
24-inch  cylinders,  vertical,  5-feet  stroke;  round 

M3 


164  COAL    ANB    COAL-MINING. 

eteel  rope;  conical  drum;  depth,  345  yards,  or 
1,035  feet ,  two-decked  cage,  with  4  tubs,  carrying 
24  cwt.  of  coal;  time  in  shaft  40  seconds. 

Seaton  DelavaZ;  two  horizontal  cylinders  of  36  inches 
diameter ;  6  feet  stroke ;  high  pressure ;  depth, 
112  fathoms,  or  672  feet;  flat,  5  inch  wire  rope; 
load,  4  tubs,  with.  11  to  12  cwt.  each  ;  weight  of  iron 
cage,  with  its  chains, 3  tons  ;  time,  30  seconds. 

Navigation  Pit,  Aberdare ;  two  oscillating  cylinders, 
43  inches  diameter ;  6  feet  2  inches  stroke  ;  depth, 
365  yards,  or  1,095  feet ;  round  wire  rope,  2 
inches  diameter,  on  conical  drum ;  load,  2  large 
tubs,  IT  cwt.,  with  47  cwt.  of  coal ;  cage  and  bridle 
chains,  2  tons,  3  cwts. ;  total  weight,  with  rope,  at 
bottom  of  pit,  9  tons ;  time  in  shaft,  46  seconds. 

The  high  velocities  which  are  thus  attained  in  shaft- 
work,  by  means  of  which  from  500  to  1 ,000  tons  of 
coal  are  drawn  from  a  single  pit  in  a  day,  have  been 
rendered  possible  only  by  the  use  of  guides  or  con- 
ductors, which  insure  smoothness  of  movement  and 
prevent  collisions.  Mr.  Curr,  of  Sheffield,  already 
mentioned  for  his  valuable  innovations,  introduced  at 
the  end  of  the  last  century  wood  conductors  for  guiding 
the  corves,  by  aid  of  which  he  asserted  that  he  could 
draw  from  140  yards  depth  in  half  a  minute.  Yet  for 
years  he  found  but  little  response ;  they  were  applied 
at  a  few  of  the  midland  pits,  and  about  1827  by  the 
late  Mr.  Holwey,  at  Welton  Hill,  near  Midsomer 
Norton.  In  the  north  they  began  to  make  their  way 
between  1835  and  1840,  and  are  now  universally 
employed,  as  essential  to  economy  and  to  the  safety  of 
the  men. 


RAISING   THE    MINERAL    IN   THE    SHAFTS.  165 

The  conductors  in  general  use  are  of  wood  (Memel 
pine)  about  4  inches  by  3,  attached  to  bunions,  or  cross- 
pieces,  fixed  across  the  pit  at  intervals,  and  are  com- 
monly only  two  in  number,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
cage,  and  costing,  with  labour,  10s.  to  14s.  per  fathom. 
In  some  instances  a  pair  of  vertical  bridge-rails  are 
employed ;  in  others,  lengths  of  angle-iron,  similarly 
attached  to  buntons.  In  Lancashire  many  pits  have 
been  fitted  with  a  continuous  round  bar  of  iron,  fixed 
at  the  pit-bottom,  and  screwed  up  to  the  head-frame, 
the  cross-bar  of  the  cage  having  a  ring  at  each  end, 
which  runs  upon  the  rods.  An  inferior  plan  is 
that  of  similarly  stretching  down  the  pit  a  wire  rope, 
or  a  single-link  chain,  where  the  undulations,  and, 
in  the  latter,  the  rattling  vibration,  are  neither 
agreeable  to  the  traveller  nor  safe  against  accident. 

One  of  the  important  shaft-fittings,  upon  this  method, 
is  the  cage,  or  chair,  for  the  reception  of  the  tubs  or 
trams,  which  simply  traverses  up  and  down  the  pit.  It 
is  almost  invariably  constructed  of  malleable  iron,  and, 
since  lightness  is  highly  desirable,  as  small  as  possible 
for  the  weight  it  is  destined  to  carry.  For  a  single  tub 
a  cage  of  5  or  6  cwt.  will  suffice ;  for  two,  whether  to 
be  placed  side  by  side  or  one  over  the  other  (a  2-decker), 
9  to  10  cwt.  At  Monkwearmouth  the  4-tub-cages 
weigh  as  much  as  24  cwt. ;  others  no  less  than  3  tons, 
including  their  tackling-chains.  Cages  of  combined 
strength  and  lightness  have  of  late  been  advantageously 
made  of  steel. 

The  slide  parts  of  the  cage,  of  thin  wrought  iron,  which 
loosely  fit  to  three  sides  of  the  wooden  conductor,  are 
applied  both  at  the  upper  and  lower  bar  of  the  framing, 
and  are  a  little  bell-mouthed  upward  and  downward 


166 


COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 


to  allow  them  to  slip  more  freely  over  inequalities.  In 
order  also  to  keep  the  tubs  from  shifting  during  their 
transit,  a  simply  contrived  latch  is  always  applied 
either  on  the  floor  of  the  cage  or  at  the  ends  of  a  rod 
passing  through  its  upper  har.  And  when  the  weight 


Fig.  26.  Single-deck  iron  cage,  Newsham,  for  rolled  iron  guides. 

reaches  the  surface,  duly  signalled  on  its  approach  by 
a  bell  ringing  in  the  engine-house,  and  by  some  visible 
mark  attached  to  the  rope,  the  cage  is  lifted  with  its 
floor  a  little  above  the  plane  of  the  bank  at  which  it  is 
intended  to  rest,  and  then  allowed  to  drop  on  to  the 
keeps.  These  latter  are  the  heads  of  an  arrange- 
ment of  counterbalanced  levers,  which  offer  no  ob- 
stacle to  the  ascent  of  the  cage,  but  by  a  single 
movement  of  the  hand  or  foot  of  the  lander  are  made  to 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN   THE    SHAFTS.  167 

protrude  and  catch  it  in  its  descent.  The  moment  that, 
at  a  lively  pit-mouth,  the  cage  bottom  touches  the 
keeps,  the  landers  have  already  got  hold  of  the  full 


Scale  affect 


Fig.  27.  Steel  cage,  North  Seaton,  with  four  tubf\.    Elevations  and  plan. 

tubs  to  pull  them  on  to  terra  fama,  or  are  forcing  them 
out  with  the  empty  ones  which  they  are  pushing  in  to 
take  their  places.  On  the  iron-plates  with  which  the 
staging  about  the  pit-top  is  floored,  the  waggons  are 
hauled  off,  up  goes  the  cage  with  a  jerk  a  few  feet,  and 
anon  plunges  down  again  into  the  gloom ;  whilst  the 


168  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

men  are  rushing  forward  with  the  empty  tubs  prepared 
J.OY  the  fellow-cage,  which  in  a  few  seconds  flies  up  by 
the  other  side  of  the  pit. 

When  the  cage  is  two-decked,  or,  as  sometimes  in 
Belgium,  has  three  or  four  compartments  one  above 
the  other,  the  landing  process  has  to  be  repeated  at  the 
same  level,  or,  for  the  purpose  of  saving  time,  may  be 
carried  on  at  two  different  levels  on  the  staging,  whikt 
the  loading  is  similarly  performed  at  the  bottom.  It 
is  in  this  way  that  a  very  neat  system  is  adopted  for 
running  in  and  out  the  eight  tubs  which  form  the  load 
of  the  great  4-decked  cage  of  the  Grand  Hornu 
Colliery,  near  Mons,  a  cage  weighing  itself,  with  its 
protecting  cover,  about  2,692  Ibs.  English. 

The  single-link  chains,  and  the  round  hempen  ropes 
of  former  days,  survive  only  at  rude  and  petty  works. 
Elsewhere  they  are  succeeded  by  flat  ropes  of  hemp 
(bands),  by  the  ponderous  flat  chains  of  three  links 
used  for  slow  drawing  in  the  Staffordshire  district,  or 
by  wire-rope,  either  flat  or  round.  Iron  wire  was 
applied  to  mining  purposes  in  the  Hartz  mountains, 
and  then  in  Hungary  and  Saxony,  before  it  was  tried  in 
England,  and  its  cheapness  and  lightness,  as  compared 
with  hemp  rope  of  equal  strength,  obtained  for  it 
a  great,  but  by  no  means  exclusive  success.  The 
desirable  quality  of  lightness  has  been  pushed  still 
further  by  employing  ropes  of  steel  wire,  but  not 
hitherto  to  any  great  extent,  although  Mr.  Tylden 
Wright  informs  me  that  his  flat  iron  wire  ropes, 
weighing  27  Ibs.  per  fathom,  have  been  replaced  by  flat 
steel  of  16  Ibs.,  and  (in  the  upcast  pit)  by  round 
steel  rope  of  13  Ibs.  to  the  fathom,  the  weight  of  coal 
in  each  case  being  28  to  30  cwt. ;  and  that  the  round 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN    THE    SHAFTS. 


169 


ropes  have  been  working  for  two  years,  whilst  the  flat 
iron  and  steel  ropes  seldom  admit  of  more  than  14 
months  wear. 

The  flat  ropes  have  been  largely  employed,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  easing  the  engine  by  coiling  one  lap 
over  the  other,  and  thus  forming  a  counterbalance  as 
the  cage  ascends  or  descends,  giving  the  fullest  lever- 
age to  the  engine  at  the  time  that  the  maximum 
weight  is  being  lifted,  i.e.,  when  the  loaded  cage  starts 
from  the  bottom  of  the  pit.  But  the  greater  wear  and 
tear  has  given  rise  within  the  last  few 
years  to  the  introduction  of  round 
wire-ropes,  coiled — some  upon  cylin- 
drical, others  upon  conical  drums.  In 
the  instance  just  quoted,  the  drum 
runs  from  16  feet  at  the  small  end  up 
to  20  feet  diameter ;  and  if  due  care  be 
taken  to  wind  the  rope  on  at  first  very 
tightly,  and  to  give  such  an  inclina- 
tion as  shall  guard  the  coils  against 
slipping,  these  drums  are  found  to 
work  admirably. 

In  the  deeper  Belgian  collieries,  conical  drlfmTn  section, 
flat  ropes  made  of  the  aloe  fibre  (much  Scale' 1  inch  to  10  feet 
employed  for  the  same  purposes  in  Mexico)  are  pre- 
ferred. The  disadvantage  of  this  material  would  appear 
to  be  the  great  weight,  since  with  about  15  per  cent, 
of  tar,  the  ropes  used  at  the  Grand  Hornu  weigh  from 
12  to  19  Ibs.  per  metre  of  3*28  feet  English.  They  are 
stated,  however,  to  be  extremely  strong,  trustworthy, 
and  durable.  As  a  further  means  of  counterbalancing 
the 'great  weight  of  rope  to  be  lifted  with  the  full  cage, 
there  is,  in  most  of  the  Northern  collieri  &  a  counter- 


170 


COAL 


COAL-MINING. 


balance  chain  attached  to  the  drum  shaft,  which  passes 
in  the  reverse  direction  to  the  rope  over  a  pulley,  anc 
has,  appended  to  the  end  of  it,  a  quantity  of  excess- 
ively heavy  links  of  iron,  which  repose  at  the  bottom  o: 
a  pit,  30  or  40  yards  deep,  when  not  required  to  be  ir 
action.  When,  however,  the  descending  rope  begins  tc 
preponderate,  they  are  gradually  lifted  into  the  air, 
and  thus,  when  the  full  cage  begins  to  be  lifted,  aid 
with  their  great  weight,-  the  effort  of  the  engine  ir 
accomplishing  the  heavier  portion  of  its  work. 

The  pulley-frames,  or  head-stocks,  intended  for  the 


Fig.  29.  Drawing-engine  placed  between  two  pits.    Scale,  1  inch  to  50  feet. 


Fig.  30.  Engine  on  one  side  of  a  priir  of  pits.    Scale.  1  inch  to  50  feet. 

working  of  a  single  band  clown  a  pit,  and  thus  oftei 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN    THE   SHAFTS.  17J 

placed  one  on  each  side  of  the  engine,  as  commonly 
arranged  in  the  midland  districts,  are  a  comparatively 
simple  framing  in  a  triangular  form,  composed  of  two 
uprights  and  two  back-legs,  supporting  a  sheave  or 
pulley  of  cast  iron,  6  to  9  feet  diameter,  at  the  height 
of  from  20  to  30  feet  above  the  ground.  When  intended 
for  rapid  winding,  these  latter  are  generally  replaced 
by  pulleys  of  greater  diameter,  from  10  to  as  much  as 
20  feet,  and  having  the  spokes  made  of  light  wrought 
iron  rod  and  only  the  socket  and  rim  of  cast  iron.  When 
two  bands  are  to  be  worked,  the  pair  of  pulleys  are 
set  upon  a  framing  of  greater  breadth,  which  often 
has  a  general  rectangular  form,  steadied  by  back-legs 
strutted  either  against  the  ground  or  against  the 
engine-house.  But  the  varieties  in 
form  are  so  numerous  that  it  would 
carry  us  beyond  our  limits  to  do 
more  than  refer  generally  to  them. 
A  noteworthy,  but  expensive, 
modification  is  that  at  Seaton 
Delaval,  where  the  timber  framing 
is  replaced  by  beams  of  f-ths  inch 
wrought  iron,  riveted  at  the  corners 

Fig.  31.    Plan  of  iron 

with    angle-iron.     Cast    iron    has  upright*. 

been  employed  in  Staffordshire  for  small  frames,  but  it 
is  not  to  be  relied  upon. 

With  all  the  precautions  taken  to  secure  good  en- 
gines, careful  men,  and  trustworthy  ropes,  two  kinds 
of  accidents  occasionally  occur,  which,  as  in  this 
country  the  men  are  invariably  lowered  and  raised  by 
the  same  machinery,  give  rise  to  a  peculiarly  harrowing 
loss  of  life.  One  of  these  is  the  overrrinding,  which 
brings  the  cage  violently  up  against  the  pulleys  over- 


172  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

head,  and  thus  breaks  the  rope.  And,  as  with  the 
large  drums  now  in  use,  a  single  stroke  of  the  engine 
raises  the  cage  60  or  70  feet,  it  will  be  seen  how 
needful  it  is  to  have  a  careful  engine-man,  and  ma- 
chinery under  perfect  control.  Overwinding  is  guarded 
against  partly  by  having  the  pulley-frame  high  (from 
30  to  60  feet),  partly  by  the  signals  which  tell  the  man 
when  to  moderate  his  speed,  and  partly  by  efficient 
brakes ;  and  of  late  steam  brakes  have  often  been  added 
to  the  engines,  which  in  some  cases  are  self-acting, 
and  come  into  play  by  admission  of  steam  into  a 
special  cylinder  as  soon  as  the  cage  passes  a  certain 
point  in  the  guides. 

The  second  class  of  accident  is  from  the  simple 
breakage  of  the  rope,  and  whilst,  in  most  cases,  it  is 
guarded  against  only  by  keeping  in  employ  the  best 
materials,  and  carefully  overhauling  the  rope,  it  has 
been  the  subject  of  a  number  of  inventions,  to  which 
the  name  of  safety-cage,  in  French  parachute,  has  been 
applied.  As  early  as  1846,  Mr.  Fourdrinier  had 
practically  tested  in  North  Staffordshire  an  ingenious 
arrangement  by  which,  on  the  breakage  of  the  rope,  a 
wedge  was,  by  the  action  of  a  spring,  inserted  between 
the  wooden  guide  and  a  part  of  the  cage,  so  as  to  bring 
the  latter  immediately  to  a  stand-still.  In  1850  and 
1851,  I  saw  a  number  of  them  applied  by  sundry 
colliery  viewers,  who,  two  or  three  years  later,  had,  after 
fair  trial,  unshipped  them  all,  mainly  for  the  reason 
that  they  were  apt,  in  quick  winding,  when  the  rope 
surged  or  slacked,  to  come  into  play  when  not  wanted, 
and  thus  to  introduce  a  new  source  of  delay  and  danger. 
In  fact,  to  the  present  day,  this  same  objection  holds 
good,  more  or  less,  to  all  the  varieties  that  have  since 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN    THE    SHAFTS. 


173 


been  proposed  ;  ami,  a'ong  with  the  common  dislike  of 
trusting  to  a  spring  for  setting  it  in  action,  militates 
against  their  general  adoption  by  the  coal  trade. 

Two  varieties,  it  is  true,  were  shown  at  the  Exhibition 
oi  1862,  which  dispensed  with  springs,  Paull's  and  one 
of  Nyst's,  of  Belgium  ;  but  neither  of  them  was 
thought  satisfactory  by  the  Jury. 

The  remainder  of  the  safety-cages  are  chiefly  divisible 
into  those  where  two  levers  are 
made  to  thrust  outwards  against 
the  conductors,  and  those  where 
clutches  embrace  the  two  sides 
of  the  guide  rods.  Of  the  former 
kind  is  that  of  Fontaine,  which 
has  been  successfully  applied  in 
the  great  collieries  of  Anzin.  Of 
the  latter,  we  can  only  mention 
White  and  Grant's,  largely  em- 
ployed in  Scotland ;  Aytoun's, 
Nyst's  (fitted  to  trapezoidal 
guides),  Jordan's,  which  grips 
firmly  without  the  use  of  sharp 
teeth;  and  Owen's,  Fig.  33,  which 
has  been  applied  in  many  of  the 
Lancashire  pits,  and  has  actually 
saved  numerous  lives. 

The  apparatus  of  Mr.  Calow,  of 
Derbyshire,  Fig.  34,  is  noticeable 
for  the  ingenious  manner  in  which 
he  brings  a  single  spring  to  bear 
on  the  clutches,  not  when  the 
rope  is  merely  slacked,  so  as  to 
run  out  faster  than  usual,  but  only  when  the  cage 


E 


Fig.  32.  Fontaine's  parachute 
as  it  appeared  at  the  col- 
liery  of  Boussu,  when  the 
flat  wire-rope  broke  "ritb 
a  weight  of  2  tous. 


174 


COAL    AND    COAL- MINING. 


begins  to  descend  at  the  velocity  of  falling.    The  spiral 
spring,   held   in   a   state   of    compression   between   a 


Fig,  #3.  Owen's  safety  cage. 

A  the  conductor  rods. 

B  0,  the  toothed  levers  connected  by  the  rods 

D  D  with  the  rope. 
B  E,  the  spring  which,  if  the  rope  breaks. 

forces  down  the  upper  end  of  the  lever. 


Fig.  34.  Calow's  safety  cage. 


weighted  cap  above  it,  and  the  part  of  the  cage  below 
it,  from  which  the  cap  is  separable,  no  sooner  finds 
its  foundation  gone  by  the  commencement  of  fall,  than 
it  flies  into  action,  lifting  its  cap  and  pulling  the  levers 
which  close  the  clutches.* 

The  question  of  the  advisability  of  employing  any 
form  of  safety-clutch  yet  invented,  is  by  no  means 

*  Models  of  a  great  number  of  the  safety-cages  which  have  "been  in 
practical  operation  are  open  to  inspection  in  the  Museum  of  Practical 
Geology,  Jermyn  Street. 


RAISING    THE    MINERAL    IN   THE    SHAFTS.  175 

settled.  Many  of  the  most  experienced  colliery  viewers, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  hold  to  the  opinion  that  they 
substitute  one  danger  for  another ;  and  that,  what  with 
the  inconvenience  of  their  operating  when  not  required, 
the  danger  of  trusting  to  springs  amid  the  dust  and 
wet  and  rust  of  a  shaft,  and  the  tendency  to  induce 
neglect  of  the  proper  condition  of  the  rope,  it  is  safer 
to  trust  to  careful  engine-men,  the  best  materials,  and 
caution  in  not  running  a  rope  too  long,  or  omitting  to 
have  it  frequently  examined. 

Many  of  the  above  inventions  are  coupled  with  an 
apparatus  for  disengaging  the  cage  if  overwound,  and 
thus  bringing  it  to  a  standstill  against  the  guides ;  and 
these  form,  doubtless,  a  very  useful  adjunct. 

A  cover,  or  bonnet  of  sheet  iron,  is  now  very  generally 
added  to  the  cage,  to  protect  the  men  against  falling 
materials ;  and  with  the  addition  of  sliding  gates  at 
the  shaft-top,  which  are  lifted  when  the  cage  comes  up, 
but  guard  the  brink  of  the  pit  when  the  cage  is  down, 
are  safeguards  against  many  of  the  accidents  so  rife  in 
connection  with  shafts. 

Those  who  are  connected  with  metalliferous  mines 
would  like  to  see  one  of  the  pits  of  every  coal -work 
lilted  with  a  ladder-way,  to  give  egress  to  the  men  in 
case  of  accident  to  the  winding  machinery ;  but  though 
commonly  employed  on  the  Continent,  ladders  are 
quite  unusual  at  our  British  collieries. 

The  safest  and  most  economical  mode  of  putting  the 
men  up  and  down  the  shafts  is  the  Fahrkunst,  or  man- 
engine,  a  reciprocating  rod  or  pair  of  rods,  fitted  with 
steps,  by  which  the  traveller  is  lifted  from  8  to  14  feet 
at  a  stroke,  and  by  which  an  entire  pit's  crew  of  400  or 
500  men  may  be  conveyed  in  little  more  than  an  hour. 


176  COAL   A*T>    COAL-MINING. 

In  Belgium  and  Westphalia,  as  in  our  Cornish  mines, 
they  are  in  common  use  ;  and,  from  a  long  experience,  I 
can  testify  to  their  comfort  and  security ;  but  in  OUT 
coal  districts,  a  strong  feeling  in  favour  of  the  rope 
prevails,  by  which,  although  one  party  of  men  passes 
through  the  shaft  more  rapidly,  the  passage  of  the 
whole  complement  occupies  the  engine  much  longer ; 
whilst  the  annals  of  colliery  working  supply  us  with 
too  many  sad  instances  of  the  dangers  which  attach  to 
this  system. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

DRAINAGE   AND    PUMPING. 

IN  no  respect  do  collieries  differ  more  from  each  other 
than  in  the  quantities  of  water  which  they  encounter, 
either  in  the  winning,  or  in  the  subsequent  working 
of  their  mineral.  In  one  case,  a  retentive  clay  cover 
may  prevent  the  access  of  surface  water,  which  in 
another  may  pass  in  abundance  through  a  sandy  or 
a  gravel  alluvium.  In  certain  districts,  water-bearing 
measures  of  an  almost  fluid  consistency  must  be  passed 
through,  whilst  in  others,  the  comparatively  tight  coal 
measures  may  at  once  be  entered.  Frequently  the 
strata  above  and  below  the  coal  are  so  compact  as  to 
render  the  workings  actually  too  dusty  and  dry ;  but 
instances  are  common  enough  in  which  water  makes 
its  way  through  the  roof  stone,  or  through  the  coal 
itself,  and  adds  difficulties  and  expense  to  the  whole  of 
the  operations.  In  a  former  chapter,  we  have  seen  that 
by  the  process  of  tubbing,  the  water  met  with  in  the 


DRAINAGE    AND    PUMPING.  177 

shaft  may  be  so  effectually  excluded,  as  even  to  admit 
of  a  mine  being  worked  dry  beneath  heavy  feeders ; 
but  it  too  often  happens  that  either  from  the  conditions 
of  the  place  being  unfavourable  to  the  process,  or  from 
its  not  having  been  attempted,  a  costly  system  of 
pumping  has  to  be  unremittingly  maintained. 

Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  there 
were  many  districts  in  which  comparatively  shallow 
collieries  were  drained  by  means  of  adit-levels,  or 
soughs,  often  driven  for  a  long  distance  from  lower 
ground.  But,  in  proportion  as  these  superficial  work- 
ings have  been  exhausted,  it  has  become  necessary  to 
follow  the  seams  to  greater  depths,  and  there  are  but 
a  few  hilly  regions  left,  such  as  South  Wales  and  Dean 
Forest,  where  some  of  the  works  still  enjoy  the  ad- 
vantage of  free  drainage. 

Before  the  practical  introduction  of  Newcomen's 
steam-engine,  the  modes  of  removing  the  water  from 
under-level  excavations  were  by  the  application  of  horse 
power  or  of  water-wheels  to  an  endless  chain  with 
buckets,  to  drawing-pumps,  to  the  rag-and-chain,  or 
to  winding  of  the  water  in  barrels  or  ox-skins.  Agri- 
cola  gives  UE,  in  1550,  an  accurate  description,  with 
drawings,  of  many  varieties  of  apparatus  worked  by 
tread- wheels,  by  horse-gins,  or  by  water-wheels  of  15 
to  30  feet  diameter,  which  show  that  very  little  advance 
was  made  between  the  period  of  his  observations  and 
the  commencement  of  the  18th  century.  Nay,  it  is 
clear  that  until  of  late  years,  many  of  our  mines  still 
laboured  under  the  same  disadvantage  as  of  old  in  their 
pump-work,  viz.,  that  it  was  supposed  to  be  necessary 
to  restrict  the  height  of  a  lift  of  pumps  to  the  32  feet 
through  which  water  can  be  raised  by  atmospheric 

N 


178  COAL,    A*,D    COAL-MINING. 

pressure.  The  several  contrivances  above  mentioned 
answered  their  purpose  as  long  as  the  pits  were  very 
shallow,  but  their  difficulties  increased  rapidly  with 
depth  (a  condition  of  mining  work  often  overlooked  by 
inventors),  repairs  were  constantly  needed,  and,  "  when 
a  joint-pin  gave  way,  the  whole  set  of  chains  and 
buckets  fell  to  the  bottom  with  a  most  tremendous 
crash,  and  every  bucket  was  splintered  to  pieces. "  * 

When  pumps  were  employed,  of  which  the  one 
raised  water,  about  30  feet  only,  to  the  next  lift  above, 
the  moving  parts  had  to  be  so  multiplied,  that  things 
were  unnecessarily  crowded  in  the  shaft;  first-cost  and 
subsequent  maintenance  were  needlessly  heavy,  and  all 
the  difficulties  were  greatly  augmented  with  the  increase 
in  the  volume  of  water  to  be  lifted. 

These  common  drawing  or  "  suction  "  pumps  had  to 
be  converted  into  the  more  useful  drawing  or  bucket- 
lifts  of  mines,  by  the  simple  expedient  of  increasing 
the  height  of  the  collar  above  the  piston,  or  in  other 
words,  making  the  bucket-rod  work  inside  a  column 
of  pumps,  or  trees  (as  they  are  often  termed,  from 
being  originally  of  wood),  and  lift  the  water  above 
it.  Applied  in  this  manner,  the  length  of  the 
lift  becomes  only  a  question  of  strength  of  materials, 
and  it  is  commonly  extended  to  50,  60,  or  80  yards. 

The  woodcut,  No.  35,  will  show,  in  section,  the 
bucket  in  its  working  barrel,  the  rod  extending  upwards 
with  the  column,  or  trees;  below  it  is  the  clack,  or 

*  Fossil  Fuel,  p.  196.  A  singular  pumping-machine  recalling  this 
old  apparatus  was  still,  in  1857,  to  be  seen  at  the  little  colliery  of  Coal 
Barton,  near  Frome,  where  50  fathoms  length  of  8-inch  pumps  were 
worked  by  a  fall  of  water  passing  26  yards  down  a  pit,  and  utilised 
upon  a  chain  with  buckets  of  sheet  iron  lapping  over  wheels  above 
and  below. 


fig.  35.  Bucket,  or  drawing  lift. 


Yip.  36.  Plunger  lift. 


180  COAL    A?)D    GOAL-MINING. 

valve-piece,  resting  in  its  seat,  and  capable  of  being 
removed  either  through  the  clack  door •,  or  sometimes, 
in  case  of  accident,  by  being  fished  up  with  a  hook 
passed  down  through  the  column  on  removal  of  the 
bucket-rod.  The  lowermost  portion  is  the  so-called 
wind-bore,  or  snore-piece,  where  the  holes  in  the  bottom, 
generally  covered  by  the  water  of  the  cistern  or  the 
sump,  are  of  such  size  as  to  prevent  the  entry  of  chips  or 
stones.  The  joints  of  the  various  lengths,  and  that  be- 
tween the  door  and  the  clack  door-piece,  are  made  tight 
by  the  intervention  of  a  thin  layer  of  some  soft  material, 
as  tarred  flannel,  caoutchouc,  &c.,  and  screw  bolts  and 
nuts.  The  action  of  this  pump  is  easy  to  follow :  at 
every  up-stroke  of  the  rod,  the  water  will  rise  through 
the  clack,  and  the  column  of  it  standing  above  the 
bucket  will  be  so  raised  as  to  deliver,  at  the  top  of 
the  life,  a  quantity  measurable  by  the  diameter  of  the 
working-barrel  and  length  of  the  stroke.  Should  the 
pumps  be  going  "  in  fork,"  or  the  water  have 
receded  below  some  of  the  holes  of  the  windbore,  the 
ebullition -of  the  water  will  show  that  air  is  being 
drawn,  and  that  the  full  quantum  of  water  is  not  being 
raised. 

A  few  specialities  of  the  bucket-lift  may  be  noticed. 
When  the  water  is  saline  or  acidulous,  and  corrodes 
<the  iron,  the  working-barrel,  ordinarily  of  cast  iron 
»  duly  bored,  is  sometimes  made  of  brass  or  gun  metal 
(as,  indeed,  it  very  often  was  in  earlier  days) ;  or,  as  in 
some  of  the  copper  mines  in  Cornwall,  the  whole  of  the 
pump-work  may -need  to  be  lined  with  staves  of  wood, 
carefully  fitted  like  an  internal  cask,  to  prevent  the 
rapid  destruction  which  otherwise  ensues.  During  the 
sinking  of  pits,  and  where  sand  finds  its  way  to  the 


DRAINAGE    AND    PUMPING.  181 

sump,  the  leather  with  which  the  bucket  is  geared  is 
rapidly  cut  to  pieces,  and  the  water  ceasing  to  be  pro- 
perly lifted,  the  bucket  has  to  be  changed.  In  very 
bad  cases  this  may  take  place,  not  merely  several  times 
a  week,  but  even  every  few  hours,  and  the  time  and 
cost  expended  in  the  operation  are  very  serious.  Me- 
tallic and  gutta  percha  packing  have  been  largely  tried, 
but  without  establishing  a  general  superiority. 

The  clack  is  much  more  slowly  worn,  but  it  is  never- 
theless often  a  subject  of  trouble  if  the  water  be  quick 
and  rises  above  the  clack-door  before  the  change  be 
made.  When  in  such  case  it  refuses  to  act,  and  sticks 
fast  in  its  seat,  it  must  either  be  drawn  out  by  main 
force,  or  a  second  clack  may  be  dropped  upon  it,  and 
the  water  thus  lowered.  In  recent  instances,  very  im- 
portant services  have  been  rendered  by  professional 
divers,  employed  to  put  to  rights  a  lost  lift.  At  Messrs. 
Fletcher's  Clifton  pits,  Workington,  and  in  South 
Wales,  the  work  has  been  thus  satisfactorily  done  by  aid 
of  the  diving  apparatus,  under  30  or  40  feet  of  water. 

To  return  to  the  action  of  the  pumps.  At  every  up- 
stroke it  will  be  seen  that  the  engine  has  to  raise  the 
rods,  or  spears,  and  their  connections,  as  well  as  the 
entire  column  of  water  contained  in  the  lifts ;  and  in 
order  to  obviate  the  enormous  strain  thus  occasioned, 
it  was  early  found  desirable,  in  the  deep  mines  of  Corn- 
wall, to  substitute  for  the  buckets  a  forcing  arrange- 
ment in  all  but  the  bottom  lift.  This  was  perfected  by 
Captain  Lean,  in  1801,  by  the  introduction  of  the  plunger 
pole,  or  ram,  working  through  a  stuffing-box  into  a 
plunger  case  of  bored  cast-iron,  and  forcing  at  every 
down-stroke  the  water  upwards  through  an  upper  clack, 
and  the  clear  column  of  pipes  above  it.  The  working 


182  COAL   AN£>   COAL-MINING 

of  this  method  will  be  evident  from  the  sectional  wood- 
cut, No.  36. 

The  great  advantage  hence  derived  over  and  above 
the  much  smaller  degree  of  wear  and  tear,  is,  that  the 
engine  has  simply  at  each  stroke  to  lift  the  rods  and 
plunger  poles.  These,  then,  in  the  down-stroke,  by 
their  own  weight,  descend  and  force  the  water  before 
them.  And  inasmuch  as  the  weight  of  the  rods  is  far 
more  than  sufficient  in  a  deep  mine  for  this  purpose, 
they  are  in  part  counterbalanced  by  beams  (balance- 
bobs)  placed  some  at  surface  and  some  at  intervals  in 
the  shaft,  each  laden  with  15  to  20  tons  of  old  iron. 

Thus,  in  the  mine  of  Tresavean,  at  a  shaft  348  fathoms 
deep  from  surface,  the  86-inch  cylinder  engine  raised  a 
weight  of  rods,  plungers,  and  sets-off,  for  nine  lifts,  of 
67  tons,  3  cwt.  The  main  beam,  with  its  gudgeons, 
connections,  &c.,  50  tons  ;  four  balance-bobs,  60  tons ; 
the  four  loaded  balance  boxes,  80  tons  ;  or,  altogether, 
besides  the  weight  of  water  in  the  drawing  lifts,  about 
260  tons,  to  be  set  in  motion  at  every  stroke  of  the 
engine. 

The  arrangement  in  Cornwall  is  universally  the  same. 
From  the  end  of  the  main-beam,  projecting  over  the 
engine  shaft,  a  single  rod  passes  all  the  way  down  to 
the  bottom  or  bucket-lift.  Employed  in  its  maximum 
strength  at  the  surface,  where  it  has  the  full  weight  to 
sustain,  it  is  then  tapered  or  diminished  downward 
according  to  the  diminution  of  the  strain  by  which  it  is 
affected.*  At  the  requisite  intervals  the  plunger  poles 
are  attached  to  it  by  sets-off ,  bound  to  it  by  strong 

*  Thus,  in  a  deep  mine,  a  main  rod  of  290  fathoms  long  is  made, 
for  the  first  120  fathoms  of  two  12-inch  square  Riga  balk,  and  after- 
wards one  of  15-inch  balk,  decreasing  to  14-inch  and  12-inch. 


DRAINAGE    AND    PUMPING.  183 

staples  of  iron.  The  several  lengths  of  rod,  generally 
from  40  to  70  feet  in  length,  are  connected  by  the  aid 
of  strapping  plates  of  hammered  iron  from  9  to  12  feet 
long,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  rod,  bolted  through  it 
with  screw  bolts.  At  moderate  distances  apart,  stays 
are  placed  across  the  shaft,  which  guide  the  motion  of 
the  rod,  and  iron  rollers  are  added  where  it  deviates 
from  the  perpendicular.  At  intervals,  too,  very  strong 
beams  are  fixed  in  the  shaft  as  catches,  to  prevent  the 
fall  of  the  rods  downwards,  as  well  as  indoor  catches,  to 
prevent  damage  to  the  engine  in  case  of  the  rod  break- 
ing at  a  shallow  point,  and  thus  being  suddenly  relieved 
of  its  great  weight.  In  this  manner  the  gigantic  pumps 
employed  in  some  of  the  mines  are  worked  with  such 
perfect  ease  and  smoothness  of  action  that  you  may 
stand  near  them  in  the  shaft  and  not  be  aware,  except 
by  seeing1,  that  they  are  in  motion. 

I  have  thus  dwelt  especially  on  the  Cornish  methods, 
because  the  necessity  for  economy  and  the  competition 
between  the  engineers  in  that  district  have  brought 
the  pit-work  to  a  higher  degree  of  perfection  than  is  to 
be  seen  elsewhere.  When  tested  by  the  work  done  for 
a  given  sum  of  money,  it  contrasts  remarkably  with 
the  rattle  and  concussion,  the  heavy  cross-heads,  and 
the  greater  complication  of  rods  that  are  often  notice- 
able in  other  mining  regions,  even  though  the  excellent 
invention  of  the  plunger  may  have  been  adopted. 

We  have  now  to  examine  into  the  mode  of  applying 
the  power  which  is  to  keep  the  pumps  in  action.  I 
niaj  omit  to  describe  the  means  of  setting  water  power 
to  work  pumps  of  the  above  description,  for  although 
often  employed  with  advantage  for  metalliferous  mines, 
it  seldom  comes  into  play  in  collieries.  Both  in  the 


184 


COAL   ANJ)    COAL-MINING. 


commencement  of  operations  at  a  difficult  sinking,  and 
afterwards  as  a  permanency  at  small  or  lightly -watered 
pits,  the  double-acting  rotary  engine  is  commonly  used. 
If  the  water  is  to  be  drawn  at  times  when  coal  is  not 
to  be  raised,  the  usual  ropes  or  chains  have  attached  to 
them  water-barrels,  cowls,  or  ringes,  which  will  carry 
from  10  cwt.  to  a  ton  of  water,  and  are  emptied  on 


SCALE  OF  FEET. 

Fig.  37.  Engine  and  apparatus  for  winding  and  pumping,  Cambois,  Northumberland. 

reaching  the  surface  by  means  of  a  self-acting  valve 
placed  in  their  bottom,  or  by  being  capsized  by  the 
lander.  When  pumps  are  to  be  worked,  it  is  usually  by 
sweep-rods  passing  from  the  crank  on  the  main  shaft 
to  quadrants  or  bell-cranks  at  the  shaft  mouth.  En- 
gines of  this  class,  whether  worked  by  high  or  low 
pressure  steam,  are  suitable  enough  for  temporary  or 
auxiliary  purposes,  but  must  be  superseded  in  deep  or 


DRAINAGE    AND   PUMPING.  185 

heavily  watered  mines  by  special  pumping  engines. 
In  some  few  instances  the  combination  of  drawing  and 
pumping  may  be  seen  on  a  large  scale,  as  in  Fig.  37, 
representing  an  engine  of  65-inch  cylinder  and  7- 
feet  stroke,  Cambois,  Northumberland,  which,  though 
ultimately  intended  for  drawing  alone,  is  at  present, 
during  the  sinking  of  the  shaft,  working  the  pump  rod 
by  the  intervention  of,  first,  a  built  wrought-iron  beam, 
and,  secondly,  a  beam  of  cast  metal. 

The  engines  intended  for  serious  pumping  form  a 
subject  of  the  highest  importance  in  mining,  and  as  the 
value  of  the  best  kinds  is  still  but  imperfectly  under- 
stood, it  is  desirable  to  take  an  accurate  view  of  the 
results  which  have  been  obtained  from  them. 

We  have  already,  in  Chap.  I.,  followed  the  improve- 
ments of  the  steam-engine  with  reference  to  the  employ- 
ment of  coal  as  a  motive  power,  and  have  seen  that 
Newcomen's  atmospheric  engine  (of  which  a  very  few 
specimens  are  still  left)  was  succeeded,  soon  after 
Watt's  patent  of  1769,  for  the  separate  condenser,  by 
various  improved  forms.  The  comparison  between 
different  constructions -which  then  became  needful,  was 
made  by  calculating  the  duty^  or  number  of  pounds  of 
water  raised  one  foot  high  by  a  bushel  of  coal.  When 
Smeaton  commenced  his  modification  of  the  atmospheric 
engine,  the  average  duty  about  Newcastle  was  5,590,000 
Ibs. ;  in  1772  he  erected  one  at  Wheal  Busy,  which 
attained  9,450,000.  The  same  great  engineer  acknow- 
l^dged  that  Watt's  engines,  which  came  out  between 
1776  and  1779,  would  perform  double  the  duty  of  his 
own,  and  some  of  them  were  tested  to  do  nearly 
19,000,000.  The  average,  however,  of  Watt's  engines 
in  Cornwall  gave  a  duty  of  17,000,000,  and  when 


186  COAL   AMD   COAL-MINING. 

20,000,000  had  been  attained  in  the  engine  at  Herland, 
that  shrewd  philosopher  pronounced  the  work  perfect, 
and  stated  that  further  improvement  could  not  be 
expected.  Left,  however,  to  themselves,  by  the  expi- 
ration of  Watt's  patents,  and  the  withdrawal  of  his 
agents  from  the  county,  the  Cornishmen  after  a  few 
years  organized,  in  1811,  a  system  of  monthly  reporting 
the  engines,  with  their  conditions  of  work,  and  the  duty 
accomplished.  Within  a  space  of  some  twenty-five  years 
marvellous  results  were  produced  by  the  emulation  thus 
aroused  among  mine-captains  in  the  arrangement  of 
their  pit-work,  and  among  engineers  in  the  devising  of 
improvements  in  boiler  and  engines. 

As  some  of  the  modifications  to  be  specially  cited 
are,  (1)  Trevithick's  tubular  boiler  for  generating  high 
pressure  steam,  where  the  fire  is  applied  at  the  large 
end  of  the  tube,  and  the  heated  air  made  to  pass  through 
it,  then  beneath  the  boiler  or  outer  tube,  and  afterwards 
along  its  sides ;  2ndly,  the  expansion  in  the  cylinder  of 
the  high-pressure  steam  by  closing  the  inlet  valve  at 
£,  ird,  ith,  or  even  ith  of  the  stroke,  whereby  from  41 
to  60  per  cent,  of  the  fuel  is  saved;  and  3rdly,  the 
addition  of  a  steam  jacket  or  outer  case  to  the  cylinder, 
so  protected  by  a  brick  wall,  casing  of  sawdust,  or  other 
clothing,  that  the  internal  space  is  occupied  by  steam  of 
a  temperature  but  little  below  that  in  the  cylinder. 

From  an  average  duty  of  17,000,000  performed  in 
Watt's  time,  the  Reports  published  by  Lean  show  an 
amount  of  28,000,000  attained  in  1823,  and  of  no  less 
than  60,000,000  in  1843,  whilst  the  best  engine  then 
tested  had  actually  given  an  average  duty  of  above 
96,000,000 !  The  most  remarkable  case  on  record  is  that 
of  Austen's  engine  of  80  inches  diameter,  erected  by 


DRAINAGE    AND   PUMPING.  187 

Mr.  William  West,  at  Fowey  Consols  Mines,  and  which, 
on  being  reported  in  1834  to  give  a  duty  of  nearly 
98,000,000,  was  the  occasion  of  a  searching  investigation 
and  of  a  practical  experiment,  conducted  by  other  an- 
gineers  and  mine  agents,  formed  into  a  committee.* 
The  shaft  was  at  that  time  131  fathoms  below  the  efflux 
point  of  the  water,  the  lifts  of  15  inches  diameter  for 
the  three  upper,  and  10  J  inches  for  the  two  lower  ones ; 
the  length  of  stroke  9  feet  3  inches,  the  pressure  at  the 
boiler  36^  to  45  Ibs.  per  square  inch.  The  astonishing 
result  was,  a  declared  duty  for  the  twenty-four  hours  of 
experiment,  of  125,000,000 ! 

On  taking  the  average  duty  all  through  the  year 
at  91,672,210,  we  find  that,  as  burnt  in  this  way, 
one  ton  of  coal  will  do  the  work  of  five  tons  in  Watt's 
engines,  and  will  raise  for  100  fathoms  in  height  as 
much  as  367,000  gallons,  or  1,638  tons  of  water; 
whence,  taking  coal  in  Cornwall  at  an  average  price  of 
15s.  per  ton,  the  fuel  costs  one  farthing  to  raise  2£  tons 
of  water  100  fathoms.  The  coal  consumed  for  the  long 
single-tube  boilers  of  the  Cornish  engine  is  Welsh, 
shipped  from  Llanelly  and  Swansea,  mostly  small,  and 
weighing  94  Ibs.  to  the  bushel.  The  combustion  is  very 
slow,  but  so  perfectly  effected,  that  a  few  years  ago 
scarcely  a  puff  of  smoke  was  to  be  seen  between  one 
end  of  the  county  and  the  other.  Of  late  it  is  true  that 
a  black  pennant  is  occasionally  visible,  and  the  blame 
is  laid  upon  inferior  coals.  But,  at  the  same  time,  it 
is  observable,  that  a  very  small  number  of  the  engines 

*  Similar  experiments  by  a  committee  had  shown,  in  December, 
1827,  that  Woolf's  engine,  at  the  Consolidated  Mines,  gave  63,663,473 
Ibs.  duty,  and  Grose's  engine,  at  Wheal  Towan,  St.  Agnes,  in  1828 
8  7,209,662  Ibs. 


188  COAL    4ND    COAL-M1N1TXG. 

are  reported,  and  the  average  duty  has  deteriorated ; 
and  thus,  whilst  the  shareholders  grudge  the  guinea 
or  two  per  month  for  engineer's  or  reporter's  fee,  they 
pay  heavily  in  increased  coal-bills. 

Among  the  most  experienced  of  our  mine-engineers 
in  Cornwall,  may  be  mentioned  Captain  Grose,  Messrs. 
Harvey  and  Co.,  of  Hayle,  Messrs.  Hocking  and  Loam, 
and  Mr.  West,  of  St.  Blazey.  Engines  on  a  similar 
construction  have  been  built  elsewhere,  at  Messrs.  Fair- 
bairn's  and  many  other  works,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
But  there  has  been  wanting  a  fair  system  of  reporting 
the  results  obtained ;  and  when  we  see  the  great  strides 
which  accompanied  the  recording  and  publishing  of  the 
details  in  our  western  counties,  it  appears  most  de- 
sirable that  such  reports  should  become  more  general, 
and  should  include  coal  districts,  in  which  we  too  often 
have  to  witness  miserable  exhibitions  of  neglect,  extra- 
vagant use  of  fuel,  and  great  wear  and  tear  of  materials. 
To  compare  a  bad  case  with  a  good  one,  I  have  watched 
a  large  pumping  engine  in  the  north,  which  raises  water 
frv)m  105  fathoms  deep,  in  12-inch  lifts,  at  7J  strokes 
per  minute,  with  a  consumption  of  20  to  25  tons  of 
slack  per  day.  A  similar  amount  of  work  is  done  by 
an  average  Cornish  engine  with  from  2  to  2|  tons. 
The  coal  is,  doubtless,  in  the  former  instance  inferior, 
but  the  result  shows  that  there  are  engines  in  the 
country  consuming  upwards  of  ten  times  the  quantity 
of  coal  that  is  needed  for  the  work  accomplished ! 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century,  it  was  proposed  by 
Bull,  to  omit  the  heavy  beam,  or  bob,  which  constitutes 
a  great  part  of  the  dead  weight  of  the  common  pumping 
engine,  to  place  the  cylinder  over  the  shaft,  and  connect 
the  piston-rod,  working  through  the  bottom,  directly 


DRAINAGE    AND    PUMPING.  189 

with  the  main  rod  of  the  pumps.  The  Bull-engines 
have  been  erected  at  many  mines,  but  have  failed  to 
compete  with  the  others.  Of  late  years,  several  have 
been  established  at  collieries  in  this  country  and  abroad, 
but  their  effective  performance  is  doubtful.  Another 
modification  is  just  now  in  fashion  in  the  coal  districts, 
although  condemned,  after  long  experience,  in  Cornwall, 
viz.,  that  of  inverting  the  cylinder  and  placing  the 
beam  below  it.  But  the  piston-rod  can  hardly  upon  this 
system  be  so  well  lubricated,  nor  the  stuffing-box  kept 
in  equally  good  condition,  and  the  asserted  saving  in 
the  building  of  the  engine-house  seems  at  best  to  be  a 
very  questionable  piece  of  economy. 

The  fearful  loss  of  life  occasioned  by  the  fracture  of 
the  main  beam  at  the  Hartley  Colliery,  has  been  the 
cause  of  further  attention  paid  to  that  part  of  the  engine; 
and  several  methods  of  substituting  wrought  for  cast 
iron  have  been  applied.  At  Clay  Cross,  the  beam  of 
the  new  84 -inch  engine  is  formed  of  two  slabs  of  rolled 
iron  36  feet  long,  7  feet  deep  in  the  centre,  and  2  inches 
thick,  the  two  braced  by  strong  cast-iron  distance- 
pieces  bolted  between  them,  the  whole  beam  weighing 
32  tons.  At  North  Seaton  and  Cambois,  near  New- 
castle, and  at  East  Caradon,  and  other  mines  in  the  west, 
beams  have  been  variously  built  of  boiler  plate  and 
angle-iron  ;  but  it  yet  remains  to  be  seen,  what  mode 
of  construction  will  best  ensure  that  rigidity  which 
cast  iron,  with  all  its  faults,  must  be  acknowledged  in 
a  high  degree  to  possess. 


190  COAL  IND  COAL-MINING 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

LIGHTING    OF   THE   WORKINGS. 

THE  collier,  in  descending  to  his  work,  seldom  needs  to 
carry  a  light  through  the  shaft.  A  few  seconds,  when 
the  machinery  is  good,  or  minutes  where  it  lacks  power, 
are  sufficient  to  land  him  at  the  bottom,  either  in  the 
dense  gloom  of  a  pit  eye,  rendered  barely  visible  by  a 
candle,  or  a  safety-lamp,  or,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  colliery,  in  a  busy  scene  of  activity,  well 
lighted  by  oil  lamps  or  even  by  gas.  Here,  or  at  some 
station  not  far  in-bye,  he  will  light  up,  and,  after  a 
little  delay,  in  order  to  accustom  the  eye  to  the  darkness, 
proceed  on  his  inward  way. 

The  lamps  of  the  well-known  classical  form,  of  which 
the  Romans  have  left  us  numerous  examples  in  bronze 
and  terra  cotta,  survive  in  many  of  our  modern  under- 
ground workings,  but  especially  in  the  metal  mines  of 
the  Continent.  In  the  collieries  more  generally  their 
form  has  been  changed  to  one  with  a  globular,  cylin- 
drical, or  conical  oil-holder,  and  with  a  much  smaller 
wick  than  would  be  used  in  the  Roman  lamp.  The 
Scotch  and  some  of  the  Saxons  employ  a  little  metal 
oil-lamp,  with  a  hook  on  one  side,  by  which  it  may  be 
attached  to  their  cap  when  travelling  in  low  places  on 
hands  and  feet,  or  when  climbing  ladders.  In  pits 
about  Mons,  in  Belgium,  an  oblate  form  is  preferred, 
resting  upon  a  strong  iron  spike,  by  which  it  may  be 
fixed  into  wood,  or  into  the  coal  itself,  at  the  required 
point  of  work.  Lamps  of  this  kind  may  be  constructed 
to  give  a  very  tolerable  light  with  vegetable  oils,  at  the 


LIGHTING   OF    THE    WORKINGS.  191 

cost  of"  from  three  farthings  to  one  penny  for  eight 
hours.  Within  the  last  two  years,  lamps  for  burning 
petroleum  and  paraffine  oil  have  been  proposed,  and  a 
splendid  light  has  been  obtained,  but  coupled,  in  the 
examples  which  I  have  tested,  with  a  disagreeable 
odour  very  objectionable  in  narrow  excavations. 

Our  English  colliers  (as  also  some  of  those  in  Saxony, 
&c.)  have  more  commonly  been  lighted  at  their  work 
by  tallow  candles,  which,  for  ordinary  work,  are  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  to  the  pound,  but  for  fiery  col- 
lieries, used  to  be  so  thin  as  to  weigh  thirty  and  even 
forty  to  the  pound.  The  candle  is  either  fixed  in  a 
holder,  with  a  spike  at  the  end,  or  is  attached  by  soft 
clay  to  the  place  whence  it  best  throws  a  light  on  the 
work ;  if  it  be  used  in  a  draught  of  air,  a  shield  of  wood 
is  placed  behind  it  to  prevent  its  "  swealing."  Before 
the  successful  introduction  of  the  safety-lamp,  it  was 
the  regular  practice  to  test  the  presence  of  fire-damp  in 
the  working  stalls  and  in  the  wastes  by  the  appearances 
of  the  flame  of  a  candle ;  and  skilful,  steady -handed 
pitmen  acquired  such  a  readiness  in  thus  trying  the 
gas,  that  they  would  sometimes  almost  play  with  it 
when  standing  within  a  hair's-breadth  of  destruction. 
The  slim  candle  is  for  this  purpose  neatly  trimmed,  and 
then  held  out,  shaded  by  one  hand,  so  that  the  top  of 
the  flame  can  be  more  clearly  watched.  On  being  ad- 
vanced gradually  upward  in  a  place  where  fire-damp  is 
lodged,  the  flame  is  seen  to  elongate,  and  to  assume  a 
blue  colour,  more  or  less  pure,  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  gases  present;  sometimes,  indeed,  if  the  car- 
buretted  hydrogen  be  much  mingled  with  carbonic 
acid,  nitrogen,  &c.,  the  "  cap  "  of  the  flame  will  exhibit 
u  grey  or  brown  tint ;  and  such  variations  will  be  fre- 


192  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

quent  in  the  mingled  impurities  of  the  "  return  "  air- 
courses.  As  some  varieties  of  fiery  gas  are  "  quick" 
in  comparison  with  others,  it  needs  a  cool  head  and 
unswerving  hand  to  lower  the  candle  again  with  the 
requisite  stillness,  when  once  it  had  shown  too  dan- 
gerous a  cap.  It  seldom  happens  that  the  candle  is 
now  used  for  this  purpose,  unless  to  test  the  presence 
of  the  enemy  in  places  canable  of  storing  only  a  small 
quantity. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  last  century,  when  it  was 
attempted  more  and  more  to  work  in  places  infested 
with  fire-damp,  various  substitutes  for  the  old  method 
of  lighting  were  tried.  The  reflection  of  the  sun's  rays 
from  a  mirror  was  capable  of  throwing  a  sufficient  light 
forward  for  some  little  distance  from  the  shaft  for  the 
accomplishment  of  certain  work  about  the  pit-eye,  but 
was  inadequate  to  penetrate  far  into  the  workings.  A 
premium  attached  to  those  men  who  could  work  best 
in  the  dark,  for  driving  some  dangerous  place  into 
which  no  candle  could  be  taken.  The  steel-mill  was 
then  invented  by  Spedding,  of  Whitehaven,  and  ac- 
quired a  considerable  popularity.  In  this  instrument  a 
disc,  with  periphery  of  steel,  is  made  to  rotate  rapidly 
by  means  of  cog-wheels  and  a  handle,  whilst  a  sharp 
flint  is  held  against  the  steel  edge,  and  a  succession  of 
sparks  is  given  off,  which  }ield  a  feeble  irregular  radi- 
ance. One  person  had  to  turn  the  mill,  whilst  another 
plied  the  pick ;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  its  costliness,  its 
miserable  glimmer  of  a  light,  and  its  having  distinctly 
caused  several  explosions,  no  other  means  of  illumina- 
tion could  be  employed ;  and  it  made  so  many  friends, 
that  even  in  1822  it  is  described  by  a  pitman  as  "  an 
excellent  instrument  to  travel  dead  waste  with,  because, 


LIGHTING   OF   THE   WORKINGS.  193 

when  in  the  hands  of  a  judge,  it  discovers,  by  its  various 
shades  of  light,  where  gas  is,  and  where  it  is  not."  * 

The  occurrence  of  very  serious  explosions  in  the 
county  of  Durham  in  the  year  1812,  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Accidents  in 
Coal  Mines,  at  whose  meetings  in  Sunderland,  in  1813, 
Dr.  Clanny,  of  Newcastle,  exhibited  his  first  lamp,  in- 
tended to  give  light  in  an  explosive  atmosphere,  and  of 
which  a  description  was  published  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions.  In  October  and  November,  1815,  his 
lamp  was  tried  in  a  fiery  pit,  whilst  that  of  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  is  stated  to  have  been  first  tested  in 
practice  only  on  the  1st  January,  1816.  But  although 
thus  early  in  the  field,  Dr.  Clanny  afterwards  judiciously 
modified  his  lamp  by  applying  to  a  part  of  it  the 
invention  of  Davy. 

This  great  philosopher  first  visited  some  of  the  col- 
lieries in  1815,  and,  after  an  elaborate  series  of  investi- 
gations, during  that  year  and  1816,  perfected  the  lamp 
which  was  to  be  so  great  a  boon  to  the  mining  com- 
munity.   It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  refer  at  length 
to  the  successive  steps  of  the  inquiry  which  established 
the  fact,  that  flame  cannot  be  passed,  except  under 
pressure,  through  a  wire  gauze  containing  six,  seven, 
or  eight  hundred  holes  to  the  square  inch,  and  that 
hence  the  explosive  mixture  might  ignite  inside  a  gauze 
cylinder  without  communicating  the  flame  to  the  gas 
outside  it.     The  standard  which  was  fixed  on  the  safe 
limit  was  a  gauze  with  28  iron  wires  to  the  linear  inch, 
or  784  apertures  to  the  square  inch.   A  lamp  of  1|  inches 
to  If  inches  diameter  was  at  once  found  to  be  safe  in 
the  most  inflammable  air  of  the  pits,  so  long  as  atten- 

*  "  The  Pitman's  Infallible  Guide."    Newcastle :  1822. 
0 


194  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

tion  was  paid  to  the  caution  which  he  inculcated,  that 
it  must  not  be  exposed  to  a  rapid  current,  or  allowed 
to  become  red-hot  from  the  combustion  of  the  gas 
within  it.  Mr.  Buddie  showed  that  it  thus  became 
unsafe  if  exposed  to  a  current  of  more  than  3  or  4  feet 
per  second,  and  Dr.  Pereira  proved  that  flame  could  be 
passed  through  the  gauze,  if  the  lamp  were  subjected 
to  a  sudden  jerk.  It  is  hence  manifest,  that,  as  stated 
by  Davy  himself,  this  is  an  instrument  of  perfect  se- 
curity only  in  careful  hands,  and  that  it  should  be 
guarded  by  a  shield  when  exposed  to  a  rapid  current  of 
explosive  air. 

In  the  long  series  of  years  that  have  elapsed  since 
the  first  safety  lamps  were  sent  down  to  the  northern 
coalfields,  a  very  small  number  of  accidents  has  been 
traced  to  the  lamp  itself,  and  many  of  the  alleged  cases 
are  doubtful.  Its  thorough  efficacy  has  been  daily 
tested,  not  only  where  it  is  employed  for  inspecting  the 
working-places  the  first  thing  in  the  morning,  or  for 
travelling-places  of  known  risk,  but  in  many  instances 
for  the  working  of  a  large  portion  of,  or  even  the  entire 
area  of  a  pit.  And,  indeed,  it  is  like  an  effect  of  magic 
to  pass,  with  the  safety-lamp  in  hand,  into  a  fiery  stall 
or  along  the  edge  of  a  goaf,  and  to  walk  unscathed  in 
the  midst  of  an  explosive  compound,  whose  deadly 
power  would  dash  you  to  pieces  if  there  were  but  a  wire 
awry  in  the  gauze.  Abundance  of  warning  is  given  by 
it ;  and  as  the  quantity  of  gas  increases,  the  flame,  at 
first  elongated  by  a  blue  cap,  flashes  into  an  explosion 
within  the  lamp,  more  or  less  fierce  according  to  the 
mixed  nature  of  the  air.  When  the  carburetted  hy- 
drogen is  mixed  with  common  air  in  the  ratios  of  from 
1  to  4  parts,  to  1  to  12  parts,  it  is  highly  explosive; 


LIGHTING    OF    THE    WORKINGS.  195 

whilst  below  and  above  that  proportion  it  burns  quietly. 
But  if  the  fire-damp  burn  in  it  until  the  gauze  becomes 
red-hot,  it  is  time  to  withdraw  the  lamp  steadily  from 
the  place,  or  to  extinguish  it  either  by  dipping  it  gently 
into  water,  or  by  drawing  down  the  wick  with  the 
trimming  wire. 

The  chief  objection  to  the  Davy  lamp  consists  in  its 
small  amount  of  light,  which  leads  the  colliers,  who  are 
paid  by  the  quantity  of  coal  which  they  cut,  to  substi- 
tute, when  they  imagine  they  are  safe,  the  open  light 
of  a  candle,  or  of  the  lamp,  with  the  gauze  removed. 
So  many  serious  accidents  have  arisen  from  this  cause, 
that  a  vast  number  of  modifications  of  the  original 
lamp  have  been  brought  forward,  some  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  a  fuller  light,  others  with  the  object  of  so 
locking  the  gauze  to  the  lamp,  that  the  colliers  shall 
be  unable  to  take  them  asunder,  or  shall  only  do  so 
with  the  certainty  of  putting  out  their  light,  or  of  being 
detected. 

It  would  occupy  too  much  space  to  describe  the 
various  contrivances  which  have  been  proposed  for  these 
purposes,  but  it  is  essential  to  notice  a  few  of  the  safety- 
lamps  which  have  come  into  extensive  use. 

1.  The  ordinary  Davy-lamp,  as  most  commonly  em- 
ployed in  this  country,  A,  Fig  38.  The  cylinder  of  iron 
wire  gauze  is  fixed  to  a  brass  ring,  which  screws  on  to 
the  oil-vessel.  Its  upper  portion  is  double,  in  order  to 
guard  against  the  effect  of  the  heated  gases  passing  off 
from  the  combustion.  It  is  guarded  externally  by  three 
strong  wires,  or  rods,  attached  at  the  top  to  a  metal 
roof,  above  which  the  loop  is  placed  for  carrying  or 
suspending  the  lamp.  A  thin  wire,  for  trimming  the 
wick,  passes  up  through  a  close-fitting  tube  from  the 


196  COAL  AND   COAL-MINING. 

bottom  of  the  oil- vessel.  It  is  commonly  locked  by  a 
bolt,  turned  by  a  simple  key,  till  its  head  is  sunk  even 
with,  or  below,  the  surface  of  the  metal  where  it  is 
inserted.  A  part  of  the  circumference  is  sometimes 
protected  by  a  curved  shade  of  tin  or  horn,  made  to 
slide  upon  the  protecting  bars.  The  usual  cost  is  6s.  §d. 
to  7s.  6<£,  and  the  weight  about  1  Ib.  6  ozs. 

2.  Clanny's  lamp.     The  lower  part  of  the  gauze  is 
replaced  by  a  cylinder  of  thick  glass,  well  protected  by 
vertical  bars.     The  feed  air  has  to  enter  the  lamp 
through  the  gauze  above  the  glass ;  hence,  what  with 
the  imperfect  combustion,  and  the  thickness  of  the 
glass,  the  light  given  off  is  not  much  greater  than  that 
of  the  common  Davy,  whilst  the  weight  is  double ;  and 
the  risk  alleged  to  attend  the  use  of  the  glass,  has 
added  to  the  objections  made  to  its  common  employment. 

3.  Lamp  by  Dubrulle,  of  Lille.     This  is  a  Davy,  pro- 
vided with  a  locking-bolt,  so  connected  with  an  arm 
which  lays  hold  of  the  wick,  that  if  the  oil-vessel  be 
unscrewed  from  the  gauze  cylinder,  the  effect  is  to  draw 
down  the  wick  and  extinguish  the  light.      This  and 
other  analogous  contrivances  would  be  efficacious  if  the 
men  could  be  prevented  from  taking  with  them  lucifer 
matches  ;  but  as  long  as  it  is  in  their  power  to  strike  a 
light  at  will,  the  only  real  detection  which  has  been 
applied  seems  to  be  a  Belgian  method  of  locking  with 
a  pin  of  lead,  which,  when  put  in  its  place  by  the  lamp 
trimmer,  has  a  device  punched  upon  it.     The  lamp 
cannot  then  be  opened  without  breaking  the  pin. 

4.  Stephenson's  lamp,  B,  Fig.  38.    The  "  Geordie,"  as 
it  is  called  after  its  inventor,  George  Stephenson  the  en- 
gineer, is  made  of  rather  larger  diameter  than  the  Davy, 
but  has  the  additional  safeguard  of  a  glass  cylinder, 


LIGHTING   OF    THE    WORKINGS. 


197 


surmounted  by  a  cap  of  perforated  copper  within  the 
wire  gauze.  The  feed  air  enters  by  a  series  of  small 
orifices  below  the  cylinders ;  and,  in  order  that  the 
light  may  burn  well,  it  is  important  to  hold  the  lamp, 
or  suspend  it,  when  at  work,  in  a  perpendicular  position, 


Fig.  38.  Safety  lamps.    Scale,  one-third  true  size. 

A,  Davy's,  in  elevation.  B,  Stephenson's,  in  section.  C,  Mueseler's. 

In  the  sections  the  dotted  lines  are  wire-gauze,  the  parts  shaded  with  oblique  lines  are 
glass,  the  strong  black  lines  sheet  metal.    The  arrows  represent  the  direct 
the  air-currents. 

and  to  guard  against  these  small  feed-holes  being 
clogged  with  oil  and  coal-dust.  The  glass  is  a  preserva- 
tive to  the  wire-gauze,  and  even  should  it  be  broken, 
leaves  the  lamp  still  safe.  It  is  moreover  free  from  the 
risk  of  overheating,  since,  when  the  air  becomes  highly 


198 


COAL   AICD   COAL-MINING. 


explosive,  the  light  goes  out.  A  good  many  of  these 
lamps  are  employed  in  certain  British  collieries,  and 
when  carefully  treated  and  watched,  give  good  results, 


Fig.  39.  Safety  lamps.    Scale,  one-third  true  size. 
D,  Boty's.  E,  Eloin's.  F,  Eloin's  Mueseler. 

The  dotted  lines  are  wire-gauze,  the  parts  shaded  with  oblique  lines  are  glass,  the 
strong  black  lines  sheet  metal. 

which  compensate  for  the  extra  weight  and  cost  as 
compared  with  the  Davy. 

5.  Boty's  lamp,  D,  Fig.  39.  A  royal  commission,  ap- 
pointed in  Belgium  to  take  into  consideration  the  means 
of  lighting  fiery  collieries,  recommended,  in  addition  to 
the  simple  Davy,  this  and  the  three  following.  In  Boty's 
a  good  light  is  given  through  a  short  glass  cylinder, 


LIGHTING   OF   THE   WORKINGS.  199 

surmounted  by  a  wire-gauze  chimney,  the  feed  air  being 
admitted  through  a  series  of  minute  perforations  a  little 
below  the  level  of  the  flame.  The  same  precautions 
must  be  taken  with  regard  to  these  minute  orifices,  as 
in  the  Stephenson.  I  have  seen  these  lamps  in  use 
near  Charleroi,  where  the  agents  expressed  themselves 
well  satisfied  of  their  security,  if  the  cylinder  be  made 
of  properly  annealed  glass. 

6.  Mueseler's  lamp,  c,  Fig.  38.  This  consists  also  of  a 
glass  cylinder  below,  and  wire-gauze  above  ;  but,  by  the 
insertion  of  a  central  metal  chimney  opening  a  short 
distance  above  the  flame,  so  strong  an  upward  draught 
is  produced  by  the  heated  gases,  that  the  feed  air  is 
drawn  briskly  down  from  the  wire  gauze,  and  passes  by 
the  inside  of  the  glass  to  the  wick,  thus  keeping  the 
glass  cool,  arid  insuring  a  superior  combustion.  Up- 
wards of  20,000  of  these  lamps  are  said  to  be  in  daily 
use  in  Belgium,  and  I  am  assured  by  M.  De  Vaux,  en- 
gineer-in-chief,  that  no  accident  has  been  traceable  to 
their  failure,  although  they  have  now  been  introduced 
for  many  years.  The  glass  is  of  course  subject  to  frac- 
ture, and  its  average  life  is  eighteen  months.  The  full 
light  which  they  give,  removing,  as  it  does,  the  temp- 
tation of  opening  the  safety  lamps,  is  a  strong  point  in 
their  favour ;  and  they  have  been  employed  with  success 
by  Mr.  Lancaster,  at  collieries  in  Lancashire,  and  by 
Mr.  Tylden  Wright,  at  Shireoaks  in  Nottinghamshire. 
At  the  latter  colliery,  where  they  have  been  introduced 
for  nearly  five  years,  and  are  charged  5s.  3d.  each,  I 
learn  that  for  six  months  383  Mueselers  had  been  in 
daily  use,  and  consumed  1  gallon  of  refined  rape  each. 
In  that  period  69  glasses  had  been  broken.  A  great 
convenience  is,  their  not  being  affected  by  an  amount 


200  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

of  draught  sufficiently  strong  to  blow  out  the  common 
Davy ;  and  some  viewers  hold  it  to  be  an  advantage, 
whilst  others  object,  that  it  goes  out  when  the  air  be- 
comes highly  explosive. 

7.  Eloin's  lamp,  E,  Fig.  39.      This  arrangement,  pro- 
posed by  M.  Eloin,  of  Narnur,  about  1850,  admits  the  air 
through  a  ring  of  wire  gauze  under  an  argand  cap, 
surrounding  the  wick.    Above  this,  the  light  is  given  off 
through  a  glass  cylinder,  formed  in  such  a  curve  exter- 
nally as  to  diffuse  the  rays.     The  upper  part  of  the  lamp 
surmounting  the  glass  is  a  brass  tube,  covered  at  the  top 
with  wire  gauze.     A  brass  reflector  slides  up  and  down 
the  protector  bars,   serving  both  to  throw  the  light 
downward  when  needed,  and  to  guard  the  glass  against 
dropping  water.     An  admirable  light  is  given  by  the 
Eloin,  but  it  requires  to  be  carried  in  careful  hands, 
since  it  is  very  apt,  in  rapid  movement,  to  be  suddenly 
extinguished. 

8.  Mueseler's  lamp,  modified  by  Eloin,  r,  Fig.  39. 
The  combination  of  the  principles  of  the  two  above 
lamps  is  clearly  seen  in  the  section. 

With  regard  to  the  employment  of  safety  lamps, 
there  can  be  but  one  opinion  of  their  value  in  testing 
the  condition  of  the  working-places  before  the  men  are 
admitted  to  them  of  a  morning,  and  in  the  examination 
of  those  parts  of  a  colliery  not  visited  by  the  ordinary 
collier,  where  fire-damp  may  be  expected  to  be  present.* 

*  Although  it  is  not  as  yet  used  in  practice,  I  would  draw  attention 
to  the  ingenious  "fire-damp  indicator"  of  Mr.  Ansell,  of  the  Eoyal 
Mint,  in  which  the  diffusion  of  gases  is  made  to  point  out  hy  an  index 
hand  on  a  dial  the  proportion  of  fire-damp  in  the  air.  One  form  of 
instrument  is  contrived  to  release  a  detent  and  ricg  a  hell ;  another 
intended,  like  an  aneroid,  for  the  pocket,  is  capahle  of  detecting  I'd 
per  cent,  of  gas.  The  Davy  lamp  detects  the  presence  of  about  3  per 
coat. 


SAFETY  LAMPS.  201 

But,  as  respects  their  introduction  throughout  the 
workings  of  a  pit,  the  question  is  somewhat  complex. 
It  is  apt  to  be  the  case,  that  if  one  precautionary 
measure  be  fully  installed,  another  is  neglected, — that 
when  safety  lamps  are  adopted  for  the  entire  operations 
of  a  mine,  the  ventilation  is  no  longer  a  subject  of  the 
same  attention  ;  and  unless  there  exist  good  local  reason 
for  it,  it  is  obvious  that  the  protection  by  wire  gauze 
against  present  fire-damp  is  a  less  desirable  kind  of 
security  than  that  of  drowning  the  enemy  in  a  full  ven- 
tilating current,  and  sweeping  him  bodily  away.  Where 
the  gas,  however,  is  not  merely  given  off  continuously 
from  the  surfaces  of  freshly-cut  coal,  but  bursts  out 
from  time  to  time  in  sudden  blowers,  the  general  use 
of  safety  lamps  is  imperative;  and  on  such  occasions, 
when  for  a  short  time  the  best  ventilated  workings  may 
be  "  fouled,*'  or  rendered  explosive,  the  lives  of  all  in 
the  pit  will  depend  on  the  proper  condition  of  the 
lamps,  and  on  the  obedience  to  discipline  of  those  men 
who  are  interposed  between  the  point  of  outburst  and 
the  exit  to  the  surface.  Similarly,  in  the  working  of 
pillars,  where,  with  the  movement  of  the  ground,  fire- 
damp may  exude  either  from  the  roof  or  floor,  or  may 
be  forced  by  a  fall  from  the  magazine  in  which  it  has 
been  collecting,  safety  lamps  are  indispensable.  It 
commonly  occurs,  that  although  such  may  be  the  case 
in  portions  of  a  colliery,  other  parts,  and  especially  the 
ordinary  narrow  work  in  whole  coal,  may  be  safely  con- 
ducted with  open  lights.  Here  it  will  be  necessary  to 
fix  on  certain  limits  within  which  safety  lamps  alone 
are  to  be  employed,  and  to  make  it  a  stringent  rule 
that  no  naked  light  be  allowed  to  pass  beyond  a  definite 
point  in  the  roads.  In  Fig.  19,  the  bords,  on  the  north, 


202  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

are  worked  with  candles,  the  pillars,  adjoining  the  goaf, 
with  safety  lamps  ;  a  special  door  is  fixed  upon  as  the 
place,  beyond  which  no  open  light  is  allowed  to  be  car- 
ried; and  the  course  of  the  ventilating  current,  led 
backward  and  forward  three  times,  as  seen  by  the 
arrows  in  the  figure,  is  so  contrived  as  to  guard  against 
any  communication  of  gas  from  the  dangerous  por- 
tions to  the  bords. 

In  no  department  of  mining  is  a  strict  discipline  and 
attention  to  orders  so  momentous  as  in  this, — the  ques- 
tion of  lighting.  The  misplaced  confidence,  which  is 
the  result  either  of  ignorance,  of  hardihood,  or  of  long 
impunity,  has  led  to  the  sacrifice  of  thousands  of  colliers, 
the  innocent  often  suffering  with  the  guilty ;  and  among 
the  most  useful  of  the  innovations  of  the  governmental 
inspection  is,  that  of  giving  authority  to  the  code  of 
rules  to  be  established  for  every  pit,  and  thus  of  pro- 
tecting the  majority  of  the  men,  the  steadier  workers, 
against  the  few  reckless  ones,  who,  choosing  to  act 
for  themselves,  steal  in  secret  the  luxury  of  their  pipe, 
or  some  extra  light,  at  the  risk  of  their  own  and  their 
comrades'  lives. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

VENTILATION. 

IT  needs  no  argument  to  impress  on  those  who  know 
the  necessity  of  ventilating  our  public  and  private 
rooms,  that  it  is  in  a  high  degree  essential  to  take 
thought  for  the  replacement  of  vitiated  by  fresh  air  in 
the  low  and  often-complicated  chambers  of  coal  mines, 


VENTILATION.  203 

where  many  men  and  horses  are  engaged  in  hard  work, 
and  where  numerous  lights,  with  gunpowder  smoke 
and  dust,  aid  in  contaminating  the  atmosphere.  But, 
in  the  workings  of  a  colliery,  additional  causes  come 
into  play ;  a  slow,  yet  constant  change  takes  place  in 
the  surface  of  the  substances  exposed  to  the  air,  and 
the  general  result  is,  the  absorption  of  oxygen ;  a  large 
amount  of  watery  vapour  requires  removal ;  the  poison- 
ous gas,  carbonic  acid,  is  frequently  given  off;  and, 
more  commonly,  the  insidious  fire-damp,  or  carburetted 
hydrogen,  exudes  from  the  surfaces  of  the  bared  coal, 
or  sometimes  bursts  from  it  in  violent  jets.  The  amount 
of  air  required  for  the  health  and  safety  of  the  men 
will  therefore  vary  much  in  different  localities,  according 
to  these  unequal  conditions  ;  and  whilst,  in  some  cases, 
the  slightest  movement  of  air  may  suffice  to  keep  a 
small  colliery  salubrious,  in  fiery  coals  worked  over  a 
large  area  an  actual  whirlwind  must  be  forced  through 
the  principal  passages  in  order  to  sweep  away  the 
noxious  exhalations. 

Notwithstanding  the  undoubted  phenomena  of  the 
diffusion  of  gases,  their  intermingling  in  the  chambers 
and  drifts  of  mines  is  only  partial,  and  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  gaseous  bodies  is  practically  a  very  im- 
portant guide  in  testing  their  presence,  and  enabling 
them  to  be  dealt  with.  Thus,  carbonic  acid  (C02), 
with  a  specific  gravity,  as  compared  with  air  of  1*524, 
tends  to  occupy  the  deeper  parts  of  excavations,  and 
renders  it  unsafe,  when  they  have  been  disused,  to 
enter  them  without  precaution.  Sulphuretted  hydro- 
gen (HS)  here  and  there  evolved  continuously,  very 
poisonous,  but  readily  detected  by  its  offensive  smell, 
is  also  slightly  heavier  than  air ;  carbonic  oxide  (CO), 


204  JOAL  M.ND   COAL-MINING. 

most  deadly,  but  occurring  rarely  from  natural  causes, 
is  0*970.  Fire-damp,  or  light  carburetted  hydrogen 
(CH4),  the  grisou  of  the  French  miners,  has  a  specific 
gravity  of  0'555,  and  is  therefore  commonly  found  to 
float  along  the  upper  portion  of  levels,  to  escape  of 
itself  from  workings  carried  downhill,  and  to  lodge  in 
hollows  or  the  higher  parts  of  excavations.  If  mingled 
with  air  in  the  proportion  of  -g^-th  to  -A-th,  it  may  be 
detected  by  the  "  cap "  on  the  flame  of  a  candle  or 
lamp.  If  in  larger  proportions,  it  becomes  explosive, 
and  is  most  violent  when  it  forms  ith  or  -Jth  of  the 
mixture.  The  presence  of  carbonic  acid  greatly  re- 
duces the  explosive  property.  When  there  is  as  much 
as  £th  of  the  gas,  it  burns  without  explosion,  and  a  still 
larger  proportion  causes  suffocation.  In  fiery  seams  it 
may  be  observed  exuding  from  the  freshly-broken  sur- 
faces with  a  hissing  sound ;  and  if  in  large  quantity, 
as  with  "  blowers,"  or  sometimes  near  faults,  with  a 
rushing  noise,  like  the  steam  from  a  high-pressure 
boiler.  Under  these  last  circumstances  it  will  rise 
tnrough  a  column  many  yards  high  of  water,  and 
numerous  accidents  have  occurred  through  a  forgetful- 
ness  of  this  property.  Some  of  these  blowers  will  be 
exhausted  in  a  few  minutes,  others  will  last  for  years, 
— like  that  at  Wallsend,  which  gave  off  120  feet  of  gas 
per  minute — and  may  be  then  piped  off  and  burned  at 
the  pit  bottom.  The  evolution  of  the  gases  from  the 
coal  is  greatly  affected  by  the  pressure  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, a  notably  larger  amount  being  emitted  when 
the  barometer  is  low;  and  hence  that  instrument 
becomes  a  useful  adjunct  in  judging  of  the  amount  of 
ventilation  needed  at  different  times. 

For  the  due  ventilation  of  a  colliery,  it  is  therefore 


VENTILATION.  205 

not  sufficient  to  supply  air  enough  for  the  breathing 
of  men  and  horses  and  the  burning  of  lights ;  but  we 
must  provide  for  the  sweeping  away  of  the  products  of 
breathing  and  combustion,  for  the  removal  of  the 
gaseous  results  of  blasting  and  of  the  decomposition 
of  vegetable  and  animal  matter;  for  the  cooling  of  the 
excavations  where  the  temperature  is  high  partly  from 
depth  and  partly  from  chemical  change ;  and,  lastly, 
for  the  dilution  of  the  gases  exuding  from  the  coaJ. 

In  round  numbers,  100  cubic  feet  of  air  per  minute 
may  be  required  for  the  health  and  comfort  of  each 
person  underground,  or  for  100  men  10,000  cubic  feet; 
but  if  fire-damp  be  given  off — say  at  the  rate  of  200 
cubic  feet  per  minute — we  should  need  at  the  very 
least  thirty  times  that  amount  of  fresh  air  to  dilute  it, 
or  6,000  cubic  feet  in  addition.  Increase  the  number 
of  men  and  liability  to  gas,  and  40,000  or  60,000  cubic 
feet  of  air  may  be  indispensable  for  safety.  Hence,  we 
may  point  out  once  for  all  that  no  system  of  pipes- can 
ventilate  a  mine,  and  that  the  large  volumes  of  air  re- 
quired must  be  introduced  through  the  drifts  or  work- 
ings themselves. 

The  subject  now  divides  itself  into  two  parts — first, 
the  production  of  a  current  or  "  draught ;  "  secondly, 
the  distribution  through  the  workings  of  the  current  so 
produced. 

A  spontaneous  ventilation  is  produced  by  natural 
causes,  which  may  always  greatly  assist,  and,  in  some 
cases,  may  be  sufficient  for  all  purposes.  To  account 
for  this  on  the  simplest  principles,  let  us  observe  what 
happens  in  summer  and  in  winter  with  a  diagrammatic 
working  connecting  two  shafts  of  different  depths. 

The  temperature  of  the  rock  is  found,  as  we  descend, 


206 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


to  increase  1°  Fahr.  for  about  60  feet  of  depth.  Hence 
the  air  in  workings  of  moderate  depth  will  be  in  sum- 
mer cooler,  and  in  winter  warmer,  than  the  air  at  the 
surface.  And  as  air  expands  in  warming — and  we 
know  by  Marietta's  law  that  the  pressures  of  the  gases 
are  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  their  volumes — the  colder 

column  will  press  upon 
and  displace  the  warmer. 
If,  then,  we  compare  the 
two  cases,  we  shall  find 
that  in  summer  (Fig.  40) 
the  deep  shaft  A  c  com- 
pared with  a  column,  B  E, 
of  equal  height  in  and 
above  the  shallower  shaft 
will  be  the  cooler  and 
heavier  of  the  two,  and 
will  establish  a  current 
in  the  direction  of  the 
arrows.  In  winter  the 
effect  will  be  reversed, 
and  the  warmer  air  will 
be  expelled  from  the  top 
of  the  deeper  shaft. 

But  at  certain  seasons 
— and  especially  if  the 
shafts  are  not  very  dif- 
ferent in  depth — there  will  be  equilibrium  between  the 
two,  or,  in  other  words,  the  ventilation  will  be  checked 
or  cease. 

Under  these  circumstances  we  may  artificially  in- 
crease the  difference  of  temperature — which  is  in  fact 
the  measure  of  the  ventilating  power — either  by  build- 


rig.  40. 


VENTILATION.  207 

ing  a  tower  to  lengthen  the  column  of  one  of  the  shafts, 
or  by  lighting  a  fire  in  it  for  the  purpose  of  expanding 
and  lightening  the  air. 

In  early  days  it  was  usual  to  build  a  stack  over  the 
pit,  and  to  attach  to  it  a  furnace  accessible  at  the  sur- 
face through  doors  ;  and  in  small  pits,  either  this  mode, 
or  that  of  suspending  a  fire-lamp  in  the  shaft,  may 
perform  useful  service ;  but  if  a  really  large  volume  of 
air  be  required,  we  must  heat  the  full  height  of  the 
column  in  the  upcast  shaft,  and  by  good  brick  lining, 
and  prevention  of  the  dropping  of  water,  obtain  a 
maximum  effect  in  the  greatest  possible  difference  of 
temperature  between  the  upcast  and  downcast  shafts. 
Under  favourable  circumstances,  spontaneous  ventila- 
tion may  be  made  to  pass  many  thousands  of  cubic  feet 
of  air  per  minute  through  a  colliery;  but  where  the 
pits  are  deep  and  in  good  order,  the  quantity  may  be 
enormously  increased  by  the  application  of  a  furnace  at 
the  bottom,  or,  if  it  be  needed,  by  two,  or  even  three, 
ventilating  fires  playing  into  the  same  shaft.  For  this 
purpose  a  furnace  is  usually  placed  in  the  plane  of  the 
seam,  from  5  to  10  feet  in  width,  and  with  fire-bars 
about  6  feet  in  length  ;  the  arch  is  built  in  fire-brick, 
and  well  isolated  from  the  coal,  the  height  above  the 
bars  being  3  to  5  feet,  and  below  them  3  to  4  feet. 

From  the  furnace  to  the  shaft  a  gently-inclined 
passage — the  furnace  drift — leads  the  flame  and  heated 
air  upwards ;  whilst  if  the  return  air  be  apt  to  befoul, 
it  may  be  led  through  a  higher  passage— the  dumb 
drifl—  into  the  shaft  at  such  a  height  above  the  mouth 
of  the  furnace  drift  as  to  secure  the  gas  from  firing, 
and  the  furnace  will  then  be  fed  either  with  a  safe 
portion  of  the  returns,  or  with  a  "  scale "  (a  small 


208 


COAL   4FD   COAL-MINING. 


current)  of  fresh  air  from  the  downcast  shaft.  For 
perfect  combustion,  the  coal  should  be  thrown  on  fre- 
quently, and  should  form  a  thin  fire;  and  thus  an 
average  temperature  of  140°  to  160°  Fahr.  maybe  ob- 


Fig.  41.  Ventilating  furnace,  in  longitudinal  and  cross  section.    Scale,  f-inch  to  1  foot. 

tained  in  the  upcast  shaft,  which,  if  we  take  an  average 
of  60°  in  the  downcast,  will  give  a  difference  of  60°  or 
80°  Fahr.,  on  which  the  ventilating  power  may  be 
calculated. 

The  quantity  of  small  coal  consumed  in  such  furnaces 
var.es  from  2  to  5  tons  per  twenty-four  hours ;  and 
the  volume  of  air  passed — which  may  be  from  15,000 
to  150,000  cubic  feet  per  minute — depends  in  a  great 
measure  on  the  diminution  of  the  resistance  offered  by 
friction  in  the  workings. 

In  order  to  obviate  some  of  the  short-comings  of  the 
common  furnace,  such  as  the  difficulty  of  increasing  its 
power  when  circumstances  demand  it,  and  the  inter- 
ruption of  its  work  caused  by  cleaning,  new  furnaces 
have  been  erected  at  Hetton,  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
late  Mr.  Wales,  which  are  26  feet  in  length,  so  as  to 
allow  either  the  shifting  of  the  place  of  the  fire,  or  its 
increase ;  whilst  by  a  series  of  doors,  the  admission  of 


VENTILATION.  209 

Hie  air  may  be  regulated  according  to  conditions,  either 
above  or  below  the  fire-bars.  The  enormous  volumes  of 
air  actually  circulated  by  these  means,  and  the  facility 
and  certainty  of  its  action,  have  obtained  for  the 
furnace  a  decided  preference  in  all  our  deep  British  pits. 

A  vast  number  of  mechanical  contrivances  have  been 
employed  in  mines  sometimes  for  forcing  in  air,  but 
more  commonly  for  drawing  it  out  from  the  workings, 
and  thus  establishing  a  constant  current.  It  would 
need  a  volume  fairly  to  describe  them,  and  we  can  here 
only  glance  at  a  few  of  those  which  have  been  most 
largely  applied  in  practice. 

The  WATERFALL,  formed  by  turning  a  special  stream 
into  the  downcast  shaft,  or  by  allowing  the  pump- 
cisterns  to  run  over,  is  a  useful  auxiliary,  especially 
for  driving  in  air  after  an  accident. 

The  AIR-PUMP — employed  at  a  very  early  period  in 
the  mines  of  the  Hartz — has  been,  on  a  magnified 
scale,  adopted  at  many  collieries,  especially  in  Bel- 
gium. It  has  generally  had  pistons  working  in  cylin- 
ders of  from  6  to  10  feet  in  diameter,  placed  some- 
times vertically,  sometimes  horizontally.  The  valves 
have  had  to  be  complicated  from  being  very  nume- 
rous, and  from  being  fitted  with  counterbalances, 
attached  by  light  levers,  in  order  to  diminish  the 
resistance.  A  great  diminution  in  friction  has  been 
obtained  by  making  the  piston  in  the  form  of  a 
gasometer,  plunging  with  its  sides  in  a  ring  of  water. 
This  latter  plan  has  been  carried  out  on  the  largest 
scale  in  Mr.  Struve's  ventilator,  now  working  at  many 
collieries  in  South  Wales.  His  piston  is  a  close-topped 
wrought-iron  bell,  of  12  to  22  feet  in  diameter,  work- 
ing up  and  down  in  water ;  and  by  means  of  ranges  of 

p 


210 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


valves  above  it  and  below,  placed  in  the  walls  of  the 
piston-chamber — drawing  in,  and  forcing  out,  air  at 
each  up  and  each  down  stroke.  The  action  will  readily 
be  seen  from  the  adjoining  figure,  in  which  the  piston 
is  making  its  down  stroke.  These  machines  are  usually 
composed  of  two  such  pumps,  worked  by  a  steam- 
engine,  and  are  capable  of  giving  a  theoretical  amount 


~ 


Tig.  42.  Struve's  vcntUator.    Scale,  1-inch  to  10  feet. 

of  20,000  to  100,000  cubic  feet  of  air  per  minute.  Their 
cost  is  about  £200  per  calculated  10,000  cubic  feet. 
Horizontally-working  pistons  in  prismatic  chambers 
were  erected  in  1828  by  M.  Brisco,  near  Charleroi,  and 
on  a  larger  scale  by  M.  Mahaux  in  1861.  One  applied 
to  the  colliery  of  Monceau  Fontaine,  by  Scohy,  in  1861, 
was  capable  of  extracting  45,000  cubic  feet  per  minute. 
These  are  all  greatly  exceeded  by  Nixon's  ventilator. 


VENTILATION. 


211 


now  working  at  the  Navigation  Pit,  near  Aberdare. 
Its  sheet-iron  pistons— 30  feet  by  22  feet,  or  no  less 
than  660  feet  area  each — are  supported  on  wheels 
traversing  on  rails  a  stroke  of  ?  feet.  The  chambers 
are  fitted,  as  in  Struve's  machine,  with  flap  valves 
16  inches  by  24  inches,  and  672  in  number.  At  nine 


Fig.  43.  Nixon's  ventilator,  Aberdare.    Scale,  f-inch  to  10  feet. 

strokes  per  minute,  the  theoretical  quantity  of  air  ex- 
pelled would  be  166,000  cubic  feet  per  minute  ;  but  a 
large  reduction  has  to  be  allowed  for  leakage. 

FANS. — These  instruments,  with  straight  radial  vanes, 
were  abundantly  used  in  the  German  mines  in  Agri- 
cola's  time,  about  1550.  Similar  machines  on  a  larger 
scale,  8  to  22  feet  in  diameter,  vertical  or  horizontal, 
have  been  applied  at  several  collieries  ;  but  from  their 
leakage,  and  the  considerable  velocity  needed,  have  not 
given  very  good  results. 

M.  G-uibal,  of  Belgium,  has,  within  the  last  five 
years,  devised  and  erected  several  examples  of  an  im- 


212 


COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 


proved  fan  of  from  20  to  28  feet  in  diameter,  and  6  to 
10  feet  wide.  The  figure  shows  its  form  and  the  great 
improvement  of  casing  it  in,  and  providing  a  slide 
valve  to  a  part  of  the  casing  to  meet  the  varying  con- 


Fig.  44.  Guibal's  fan.    Scale,  1  inch  to  20  feet. 


ditions  of  a  mine.  The  stack,  expanding  outwards,  is 
stated  to  counteract  to  a  great  extent  the  loss  due  to 
the  high  velocity  given  to  the  air  by  the  vanes ;  and 
experiments  made  on  the  machines  erected  at  Bully- 
G-renay,  near  Bethune,  and  Montceau-Fontaine,  near 
Charleroi,  have  shown  a  useful  effect  of  30  to  50  per 
cent,  from  the  steam  in  the  cylinder,  and  60  to  70  per 
cent,  of  the  force  transmitted  to  the  axle.* 

*  Several  Guibal  fans  are  now  at  work  near  Newcastle  (1866). 


VENTILATION. 


213 


M.  Lemielle  has  devised  a  very  ingenious  ventilator, 
now  at  work  in  many  Belgian  and  French  pits,  and  at 
Ashton  Yale,  near  Bristol,  where  it  has  acted  satis- 
factorily for  above  ten  years  with  very  little  necessity 
for  repairs.  Within  a  large  cylinder  of  brick,  wood,  or 
sheet-iron,  a  smaller  drum  is  placed  excentrically,  and 


'Jig.  45.  Lemielle's  ventilator. 

made  to  revolve.  On  the  surface  of  this  drum  are  two 
or  more  valves  or  shutters,  which,  by  means  of  iron 
rods  moving  freely  round  an  elbowed  axis  in  the  centre 
of  the  large  cylinder,  lie  close  to  the  drum  in  one  part 
of  the  revolution,  and  open  out  in  another.  The  section 
shows  by  the  arrows  how  the  air  will  thus  be  expelled 
by  the  shutters  as  they  approach  the  point  of  outlet. 

Fabry's  machine  is  another — on  the  fan  principle — 
much  approved  on  the  Continent.  Two  axes,  each 
fitted  with  three  very  broad  blades  (6  to  10  feet), 
revolve  in  opposite  directions,  and  each  blade  is  formed 
with  a  cross  arm,  so  curved  as  to  give  close  contact 
during  revolution,  and  thus  prevent  communication 


214  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

from  within  to  the  external  air.  Above  half  of  the 
circumference  of  these  fans  fits  closely  within  a  casing 
of  brick  or  wood,  and  the  foul  air,  when  the  machine  is 
employed  for  exhaustion,  is  taken  by  the  blades  on 
approaching  the  lower  part  of  their  circle  of  revolution, 
is  carried  on  each  side  outward,  and  ejected  on  passing 
the  upper  limit  of  the  curved  casing.  The  moderate 
velocity  at  which  it  may  be  driven,  and  its  durability, 
have  obtained  this  machine  a  good  name. 

Little  more  than  a  dozen  years  have  elapsed  since  a 
vigorous  attempt  was  made,  under  the  impulse  of  a 
most  injudicious  parliamentary  committee,  to  substitute 
for  the  furnace  the  mechanical  action  of  steam  jets. 
The  subject  was  elaborately  tested  in  practice  by  Messrs. 
T.  E.  Forster,  Nicholas  Wood,  and  others,  and  it  was 
clearly  shown  that  high-pressure  steam,  generated 
either  at  surface  or  underground,  and  allowed  to  escape 
from  a  series  of  small  jets — say  thirty  to  forty  in  num- 
ber, and  from  T\th  to  -|th  of  an  inch  in  diameter — was 
capable  of  doing  good  service,  especially  as  an  auxiliary 
at  times  of  accident ;  but  was  utterly  unable  to  compete 
in  economy  with  the  furnace. 

In  selecting  our  ventilating  power,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  great  object  is  to  obtain  a  large  volume 
of  air  at  moderate  velocity,  and  that  on  this  account 
most  of  the  simple  fans,  and  certain  other  classes  of 
machine  which  have  to  force  the  air  through  insufficient 
valve  room,  give  it  an  unnecessary  velocity,  which,  in 
other  words,  means  increased  resistance,  or  diminished 
ventilation. 

Furthermore,  that  whilst  the  furnace  exerts  its  fullest 
advantages  in  deep  and  dry  upcasts,  to  which  the  air 
travels  through  roomy  windways,  the  mechanical  ven- 


VENTILATION. 


215 


tilators  may  be  most  properly  applied  at  pits  where 
these  conditions  are  reversed. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  distribution  of  the  air 
through  the  workings,  remembering  that  without  due 
attention  to  its  details  we  may  have  a  storm  of  ven- 
tilating wind  in  the  shafts,  and  yet  a  deadly  stagnation 
in  the  interior;  or  one  portion  of  the  pit  safe  and  whole- 
some, another  foul,  and  verging  on  explosion. 

First  of  all,  the  means  of  carrying  the  air  current  up 
to  or  near  the  place  where  the  men  are  employed,  con- 
sists in  cutting  a  drift  or  windway  across  from  one 
working  spot  to  another,  and  as  w6 
advance,  closing  the  old  openings 
by  doors,  or  stoppings,  so  as  to  force 
the  air  through  the  required  pas- 
sage only.  To  take  a  simple  case : 
Fig.  46  represents  a  pair  of  levels 
driven  a  short  way  out  from  a  shaft 
divided  by  brattice  into  D  and  u, 
the  downcast  and  upcast  portions. 
The  pillar  between  the  levels  is 
holed  through  by  a  "  thirl"  at  A, 
when  the  drift- ends  are  advanced 
but  little  beyond  that  point.  Sub- 
sequently, when  B  has  been  thirled, 
a  stopping  is  put  into  A  either  by 
brick  and  mortar,  or  stowed  rub- 
bish, or  both ;  and  similarly  when 
c  has  been  opened,  B  will  be  closed.  ^  ^ 

If,  however,  a  thoroughfare  for  the     scale  i  inch  to  so  feet 
men  be  required,  so  that  a  stopping  is  inadmissible,  a 
door,    or — where    the   ventilation    is   important — two 
doors,  or  even  three,  are  put  up,  so  far  apart  that  a 


216  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

horse  and  trams  can  pass  the  one  and  have  it  closed 
after  them  before  the  second  is  opened.  Thus,  loss 
of  air  is  avoided,  and  the  tendency  of  the  current  to 
take  the  shortest  way  tc  the  upcast  is  checked.  In- 
deed, a  watchful  eye  must  always  be  kept  on  the  in- 
take current  D  o,  which  constantly  presses  upon  the 
barriers  which  divide  it  from  the  return  E  u,  and  leaks 
through-  all  available  openings,  to  the  diminution  of 
the  ventilation  in  the  inner  workings.  Doors  and 
stoppages,  therefore,  require  constant  attention,  or  by 
a  trifling  leakage  at  each  of  them,  a  ventilating  current 
powerful  enough  at  the  beginning  of  its  run,  may  lose 
all  its  force  ere  it  reaches  at  half  a  mile  or  a  mile  or  two 
distance,  the  locality  where  it  is  really  needed.  If, 
meanwhile,  the  coal  should  be  so  fiery  as  to  render  it 
dangerous  to  proceed  above  four  or  five  yards  without 
extra  precaution,  bratticing  is  employed  as  a  temporary 
measure  until  the  next  thirl  is  holed.  Thus,  supposing 
in  the  Fig.  46  the  end  E  alone  is  dangerous,  a  range  of 
upright  posts  is  erected  between  roof  and  floor,  from 
the  side  of  the  pillar  B  c  to  within  a  short  distance  of 
the  face  at  E,  and  brattice  boards  are  nailed  to  them, 
dividing  the  level  into  two  parts,  and  making  the 
current  travel  as  represented  by  the  arrows.*  A  light 
door  is  generally  added  for  the  passage  of  the  men  or 
horses  and  trams.  These  features  are  shown  in  the 
section  of  the  working  of  a  7-foot  seam,  Fig.  47,  where 
the  air  passes  up  close  to  the  man  on  the  left,  and  then 
turns  behind  the  brattice. 

A  single  current  may  thus  be  carried  to  the  various 
working  places,  and  brought  back  to  the  same  or  to 

*  For  temporary  purposes  a  useful  brattice-c&rt/i  is  largely  manu- 
factured by  Mr.  Darcy  Lever,  of  Bolton. 


VENTILATION. 


217 


another  shaft ;  whilst  if  the  power  be  great,  the  air- 
ways roomy,  and  the  doors  and  stoppings  in  good  order, 
it  will  be  maintained  for  a  length  of  several  miles 
without  serious  loss.  If  the  form  of  the  works  be  such 
as  that  shown  in  Fig.  21,  as  a  variety  ol  "  long- wall," 
a  stream  of  air  starting  each  way  from  the  downcast 


Fig.  47. 

shaft  will  simply  and  effectually  ventilate  the  mine. 
But  the  same  method,  generally  applied  as  it  used  to 
be,  years  ago,  to  more  complicated  workings,  is  highly 
objectionable :  it  would  leave  the  mass  of  the  openings 
inside  of  the  working  "bords"  dead  or  stagnant;  it 
would  needlessly  carry  fire-damp  from  dangerous  to 
otherwise  safe  places,  and  the  body  of  air  which  in 
the  morning  went  down  into  the  pit  fresh  and  pure 
would  take  till  night  to  drag  itself  along  some  twenty 
or  thirty  miles  of  drifc,  and  would  visit  all  its  later 
scenes  of  work  overheated,  clogged  with  dust  and 
smoke,  and  laden  with  impurities. 

Spedding,  about  1760,  introduced  the  coursing  of 
the  air  by  twos  or  threes  through  the  whole  of  the 
opened  passages,  and  soon  afterwards  all  the  chief 
northern  viewers  recognised  the  importance  of  shorten- 
ing the  runs,  and  obtaining  larger  volumes.  For  this 
it  would  be  needful  either  to  have  more  shafts,  and 
work,  as  it  were,  several  separate  mines,  or — what  is 
more  suitable  when  the  shafts  are  ample  enough — to 
split  the  air.  This  latter  plan,  by  which  a  number  of 
separate  currents  are  obtained,  is  perhaps  the  greatest 


218  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

improvement  effected  in  the  airing  of  pits,  and  when 
combined  with  the  division  of  the  area  into  panels  or 
districts,  has  the  advantage  of  confining  danger,  or  the 
results  of  accident,  within  narrow  limits.  Take  the  case 
of  a  colliery  having  12 -feet  shafts,  and  air- ways  of  4  feet 
by  5  feet,  or  20  feet  area ;  the  shaft  having  113  feet  area 
will  be  fully  adequate  to  pass  the  air  required,  not  for 
one  or  two  such  air-ways,  but  for  at  least  five.  Each 
may  then  ventilate  a  different  district,  and  they  may 
be  brought  together  again  either  at  the  upcast  shaft,  or 
into  certain  roomy  return  air- ways  approaching  it.  As 
we  increase  the  area  or  number  or  power  of  the  shafts, 
so  the  number  of  the  splits  may  be  increased,  and  since 
the  resistance  varies  directly  with  the  length  of  the 
road  which  the  air  current  has  to  travel,  and  inversely 
as  the  sectional  area  of  the  passage,  it  is  manifest  that 
if  the  runs  are  shortened,  and  the  air- ways  increased  in 
size,  the  same  ventilating  power  will  pass  a  larger 
volume  of  air.  Reference  to  Fig.  19  will  show  this 
arrangement  in  a  portion  of  the  working  of  a  large 
colliery.  But  the  balancing  of  these  splits  requires  nice 
management,  or  the  air  would  tend  to  desert  the  longer 
for  the  shorter  runs,  and  where  inequalities  in  the 
length  exist,  it  is  necessary  to  put  in  regulators,  which, 
checking  the  entry  of  the  air  into  the  shorter,  may 
force  it  into  the  longer  runs.  It  is  upon  such  principles 
that  some  of  the  northern  collieries  succeed  in  passing 
through  their  workings  the  enormous  volumes  of  from 
150,000  to  300,000  cubic  feet  per  minute. 

When  the  workings  assume  this  complicated  form, 
the  number  of  doors  to  be  tended  by  trappers  is  never- 
theless greatly  diminished ;  but  frequent  crossings  have 
to  be  made  where  one  air-current  is  carried  across  the 


VENTILATION.  219 

course  of  another  (see  Fig.  19,  c).  Thus,  the  "  returns  " 
are  generally  made  to  mount  over  the  intake  drifts,  and 
are  divided  from  them  either  by  timber  or  brick  arch- 
ing, or  boiler-plate  (as  at  Kirkless  Hall),  or  occasionally 
—  for  extra  security — by  being  carried  up  to  some 
height  in  the  solid  measures,  so  as,  in  the  event  of 
explosion,  to  prevent  the  risk  of  one  passage  being 
blown  open  into  the  other. 


Fig.  48.  Air-crossiKg. 

It  is  observable  that  in  the  more  serious  accidents 
from  explosion  a  great  majority  of  the  sufferers  lose 
their  lives,  not  from  the  actual  violence  or  fire  of  the 
blast,  but  from  suffocation  by  the  deadly  after-damp 
consisting  of  the  products  of  combustion.  Most  fear- 
ful is  this  when  dependence  has  been  placed  on  a 
bratticed  shaft,  the  brattice  is  shattered,  and  the  air 
passing  down  one  portion  and  up  the  other,  leaves  the 
workings  dead  or  without  air,  and  the  poor  fellows  who 
may  have  escaped  the  force  of  the  actual  explosion  fall 
victims  to  suffocation.  But  independently  of  bratticed 
shafts,  the  same  evil  occurs  in  a  modified  form  in  every 
colliery,  and  due  attention  has  very  rarely  been  shown 
to  so  laying  out  the  works,  that  in  case  of  a  blast  suf- 
ficiently heavy  to  blow  out  the  doors  and  shake  down 
the  lighter  class  of  stoppings,  there  may  still  remain 
between  the  downcast  and  upcast  shafts  a  sufficiently 
long  course  of  unbroken  air-current  to  afford  a  better 
chance  of  escape  to  the  colliers,  who  can  flee  thus  far 


220  COAL   AND   COAL-MINIKG. 

from  their  working  places.  In  Fig.  46  (p.  215),  it  may 
be  seen  how,  if  the  stopping  at  A  or  the  doors  at  B  are 
blown  out  by  explosion,  the  air  would  take  that  shorter 
course,  and  the  inner  workings  be  laid  dead ;  and  an 
examination  of  Fig.  19  will  show  the  same  result  more 
forcibly.  The  further  the  two  important  shafts  can  be 
separated,  the  longer  will  be  such  independent  air- 
course  to  which  the  men  may  escape.  An  upcast  pit 
to  the  rise  may  often  come  in  usefully  in  this  way  ;  but 
no  general  rule  can  be  laid  down,  because  a  shaft  so 
situate  may  often  be  so  much  shallower  than  the  other 
as  to  form  a  less  efficient  furnace-shaft ;  and  in  cases 
of  this  kind — if  the  depth  of  the  rise  pit  be  too  small 
for  good  ventilation  by  this  means — it  becomes  a 
question  whether  a  mechanical  method  would  not  be 
preferable. 

The  quantity  of  air  which  passes  is  measured  by 
taking  the  sectional  area  of  a  drift,  and  multiplying  it 
by  the  velocity  in  feet  per  minute,  to  obtain  the 
number  of  cubic  feet  circulating  in  that  time.  The 
velocity  is  obtained  either  by  observing  the  rate  at 
which  a  puff  of  powder  or  tobacco  smoke  travels  along 
a  measured  distance,  or  by  an  anemometer.  The 
instrument  most  frequently  used  in  collieries  is  that  of 
Biram,  made  in  two  sizes,  6  inches  and  12  inches 
diameter,  by  Davis,  of  Derby,  which  by  wheel  work  and 
index  hands  registers  the  number  of  feet  of  air  in  tens, 
hundreds,  and  thousands,  which  have  passed  through 
it  in  a  given  time.  M.  Combes,  and  within  the  last 
year,  Mr.  Casella,  of  Hatton  Garden,  have  devised  for 
this  purpose  a  smaller  and  more  delicate  instrument, 
depending  for  its  results,  like  the  former,  on  the  revolu- 
tion of  a  wheel  fitted  with  light  vanes. 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.     221 

,  In  order  to  test  the  different  densities  of  the  currents 
on  opposite  sides  of  a  brattice,  a  door,  or  stopping,  a 
manometer  or  water-gauge  is  employed.  This,  although 
it  gives  no  criterion  of  the  amount  of  ventilation,  is 
very  useful  for  comparisons,  as  giving  a  measure  of  the 
resistances,  or  of  what  is  technically  called  the  drag  of 
the  mine,  and  distinctly  pointing  out  any  unusual 
obstruction  such  as  mav  be  caused  by  a  fall  of  roof  in 
the  air-ways. 

The  above  brief  sketch,  although  not  pretending  to 
go  into  the  details  of  exceptional  circumstances,  may, 
I  trust,  be  sufficient  in  a  general  way  to  set  forth  the 
principles  and  practice  upon  which  the  ventilation  of 
our  larger  collieries  has  been  brought  into  so  high  a 
position  of  effectiveness  by  the  skill  and  perseverance 
of  the  leading  coal-viewers. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

•     COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND   THEIR  PREVENTION. 

THE  melancholy  fact  that  from  900  to  1,100  persons  are 
every  year  killed  in  our  British  coal  mines,  forcibly 
attracts  attention  to  the  inquiry,  what  proportion  of 
these  numerous  accidents  are  due  to  preventible  causes, 
and  how  far  a  part  of  them  are  inseparable  from  the 
dangerous  nature  of  the  collier's  occupation.  When  a 
catastrophe  of  unusual  magnitude  occurs,  public  feeling 
is  aroused,  newspaper  articles  are  written,  and  parlia- 
mentary inquiries  are  set  on  foot ;  but  the  majority  of 
the  accidents  are  little  noticed,  except  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  and  they  take  place  at  points  so  remote  and 


222  COAL   AN>D   COAL-MINING. 

so  widely  distributed,  as  to  show  that  the  main  diffi- 
culty in  dealing  with  them  rests  in  the  necessity  of 
keeping  up  an  unceasing  watchfulness  among  many 
thousands  of  men,  workmen  as  well  as  managers. 

It  has  resulted  chiefly  from  the  excitement  caused 
by  the  more  destructive  explosions,  that  several 
volumes  have  been  published,  filled  with  important 
evidence  given  before  Committees  of  the  Lords  and 
Commons  in  1835,  1848,  1852,  and  1854.  Further- 
more, since  the  Mine  Inspection  Act  in  1850,  .and  the 
appointment  of  inspectors  under  the  Home  Office,  now 
twelve  in  number,  a  vast  amount  of  valuable  informa- 
tion is  afforded  in  their  published  reports,  especially  in 
the  analysis  of  the  chief  accidents  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  year.  By  this  means  not  only  are  principles 
and  details  of  practice  laid  down  and  confirmed,  but 
many  of  what  may  be  termed  accidents  from  unforeseen 
causes,  are  so  set  before  us,  that  a  diligent  study  of  their 
descriptions  ought  year  by  year  to  diminish  their  occur- 
rence. It  is  sometimes  objected  to  the  Government 
inspection  that  the  number  of  casualties  is  not  dimin- 
ished ;  but  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  quantity 
of  coal  annually  extracted  has  been  so  largely  on  the 
increase  that,  if  with  a  nearly  doubled  production,  and 
of  course  with  a  much  greater  number  of  hands,  the 
sum  total  of  deaths  has  not  increased,  the  results  of 
the  system  cannot  but  be  considered  as  successful. 

The  careful  perusal  of  these  documents  is  strongly 
recommended  to  all  who  are  interested  in  colliery  ope- 
rations, and  from  their  detailed  explanations  it  will  be 
seen  that  not  a  year  passes  without  accidents  arising 
from  an  infraction,  wilful  or  accidental,  of  rules  which 
have  been  laid  down  as  being  generally  applicable. 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.      223 

The  following  are  the  General  Rules  which  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  inspectors  to  obtain  compliance  with : — 

1.  An  adequate  amount  of  ventilation  shall  be  constantly  produced 
in  all  coal  mines  or  collieries,  and  ironstone  mines,  to   dilute  and 
render  harmless  noxious  gases  to  such  an  extent  that  the  working 
places  of  the  pits,   levels,  and  workings  of  every  such  colliery  and 
mine,  and  the  travelling  roads  to  and  from  such  working  places  shall, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  be  in  a  fit  state  for  working  and  passing 
therein. 

2.  All  entrances  to  any  place  not  in  actual  course  of  working  and 
extension,  and  suspected  to  contain  dangerous  gas  of  any  kind,  shalJ 
be  properly  fenced  off  so  as  to  prevent  access  thereto. 

3.  Whenever  safety  lamps  are  required  to  be  used,  they  shall  be 
first  examined  and  securely  locked  by  a  person  or  persons  duly  autho- 
rised for  this  purpose. 

4.  Every  shaft  or  pit  which  is  out  of  use,  or  used  only  as  an  air-pit, 
shall  be  securely  fenced. 

5.  Every  working  and  pumping  pit  or  shaft  shall  be  properly  fenced 
when  operations  shall  have  ceased  or  been  suspended. 

6.  Every  working  or  pumping  pit  or  shaft,  where  the  natural  strata, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  are  not  safe,  shall  be  securely  cased  or 
lined,  or  otherwise  made  secure. 

7.  Every  working  pit  or  shaft  shall  be  provided  with  some  proper 
means  of  communicating  distinct  and  definite  signals  from  the  bottom 
of  the  shaft  to  the  surface,  and  from  the  surface  to  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft. 

8.  All  underground  self-acting  and  engine  planes  on  which  persons 
travel  are  to   be  provided  with  some  proper  means  of  signalling 
between  the  stopping-places  and  the  ends  of  the  planes,  and  with 
sufficient  places  of  refuge  at  the  sides  of  such  planes  at  intervals  of  not 
more  than  twenty  yards. 

9.  A  sufficient  cover   overhead   shall  be  used  when  lowering  or 
raising  persons  in  every  working  pit  or  shaft  where  required  by  the 
inspectors. 

10.  No  single-linked  chain  shall  be  used  for  lowering  or  raising 
persons  in  any  working  pit  or  shaft,  except  the  short  coupling  chain 
attached  to  the  cage  or  load. 

11.  Flanges   or  horns   of  sufficient  length  or  diameter  shall  be 
attached  to  the  drum  of  every  machine  used  for  lowering  or  raising 
persons. 

12.  A  proper  indicator,  to  show  the  position  of  the  load  in  the  pit 
or  shaft,  and  also  an  adequate  break,  shall  be  attached  to  every 


224  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

machine,  worked  by  steam  or  water  power,  used  for  lowering  or  rais- 
ing persons. 

13.  Every  steam  boiler  sball  be  provided  with  a  proper  steam  gauge, 
water  gauge,  and  safety  valve. 

14.  The  fly-wheel  of  every  engine  shall  be  securely  fenced. 

15.  Sufficient  bore-holes  shall  be  kept  in  advance,  and,  if  necessary, 
on  both  sides,  to  prevent  inundations  in  every  working  approaching  a 
place  likely  to  contain  a  dangerous  accumulation  of  water. 

In  addition  to  the  above  general  rules,  the  following 
regulations  are  provided : — 

That  no  boy  under  12  years  of  age  be  employed  in  mines,  with  the 
exception  of  bojTs  between  10  and  12  who  have  certificates  as  to  edu- 
cation and  school  attendance,  and  that  a  penalty  of  not  more  than  £10, 
nor  less  than  £5,  be  inflicted  for  every  false  certificate. 

That  steam  engines  in  certain  cases  are  not  to  be  under  the  charge 
of  persons  under  18  years  of  age. 

That  the  Secretary  of  State  have  power  to  appoint  inspectors  of 
mines,  but  that  no  land  agent,  or  manager  of  mines,  be  allowed  to  act 
as  inspector. 

That  the  inspector  have  power  to  inspect  the  different  parts  of  the 
mine  at  all  reasonable  hours. 

That  owners  of  mines  produce  maps  or  plans  of  mines  to  inspector  ; 
and,  if  owners  do  not  produce  maps,  &c.,  the  inspector  may  then 
require  them  to  be  made. 

That  notice  of  accidents  in  mines  be  given,  within  twenty-four  hours 
after  occurring,  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  under  a  penalty  of  £20. 

TLat  every  coroner  holding  an  inquest  upon  the  body,  give  notice 
to  the  inspector  of  the  district  in  which  such  accident  happened,  so 
that  he  may  attend  and  watch  the  proceedings. 

That  notice  be  given  to  the  inspector  when  any  mine  is  abandoned, 
or  when  a  new  working  has  commenced. 

That  owners  or  agents  of  collieries  who  may  neglect  to  provide 
general  or  special  rules,  or  violate  any  of  the  special  rules,  shall  be 
subject  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  £5,  or  imprisoned,  with  or  without 
hard  labour,  for  a  period  not  exceeding  three  calendar  months. 

That  every  person  obstructing  the  inspector  in  the  execution  of  his 
duty  be  liable  to  a  penalty  not  exceeding  £10. 

That  any  person  defacing  notices,  &c.,  be  liable  to  a  fine  of  40s. ; 
certified  copies  of  special  rules  to  be  evidence. 

That  it  be  the  duty  of  every  inspector  to  make  a  report  of  his  pro- 
ceedings during  the  preceding  year,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  March 
in  every  year,  and  transmit  the  same  to  one  of  her  Majesty's  principal 
Secretaries  of  State. 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.      225 


That  wages  be  paid  to  persons  employed  in  mines,  or  their  represen- 
tatives, in  money,  and  that,  -when  payment  of  persons  employed  in 
mines  is  by  weight,  &c.,  an  account  be  kept. 

The  various  districts  are  more  or  less  subject  to  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  accidents  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
coal  and  its  roof  and  floor,  the  method  of  working  it, 
and  the  general  intelligence  of  the  managers  and  men ; 
and  thus  whilst  certain  tracts  are  found  to  sacrifice  on 
the  average  one  life  for  every  60,000  tons  of  coal  raised, 
others  more  favoured  in  some  of  the  above  conditions, 
lose  only  one  for  150,000  or  even  188,000  tons. 

The  following  table,  taken  from  the  Official  Reports, 
will  show  the  number  of  deaths  from  different  causes 
in  the  collieries  of  the  several  districts  of  the  twelve 
inspectors  for  the  year  1864,  with  the  gratifying  fact, 
in  the  absence  of  great  explosions,  of  a  decrease  from 
the  numbers  for  1863  and  former  years. 


Name  of  district. 

Explo- 
sions. 

Falls  of 
oof  and 
coal. 

Deaths 
in 
shafts. 

Miscel- 
laneous, 
under- 
ground. 

At  sur- 
face. 

Total. 

1.  Northumberland,      Cumber- 
land, and  North  Durham  ... 
2.  South  Durham  
3.  North  and  East  Lancashire 
4.  West  Lancashire  and  North 
Wales             

7 
3 
5 

10 

30 
30 
33 

43 

9 
16 
13 

28 

11 

24 
10 

19 

12 
16 
3 

10 

69 

89 
64 

110 

5    Yorkshire                         

6 

27 

15 

3 

4 

55 

6.  Derbyshire,  Notts,  Leicester- 
shire, Warwickshire  
7.  North  Staffordshire,Cheshire, 

11 

22 

30 
13 

9 
11 

14 
5 

2 
3 

66 

54 

8.  South  Staffordshire  and  Wor- 

12 

51 

16 

3 

6 

119 

9.  Monmouthshire,  Gloucester- 
shire, Somersetshire  
10   South  Wales         

6 

6 

33 
67 

13 

6 

12 
18 

3 

8 

67 
105 

11.  Eastern  Scotland  
12.  West    cotland  

1 

5 

23 
15 

6 

11 

2 

4 

2 

34 
35 

Lives  lost  in  coal-pits  in  1864  ... 
And  in  the  ironstone  mines  of  the 
coal  measures  

94 

7 

395 
43 

184 
28 

125 
14 

69 
4 

867 

90 

Total  lives  lost  in  1864  in  the 
mines  under  inspection  

101 

438 

212 

139 

73 

963 

226  COAL   Alfo   COAL-MINING1 

Let  us  pass  to  a  review  of  the  more  prolific  sources 
of  accident : — 

1.  Falls  of  roof  . — These  are  occasioned  especially  in 
high  seams,  by  the  removal  of  the  upper  portions  of 
the  coal,  more  particularly  when  the  whole  thickness, 
as  for  the  most  part  in  South  Staffordshire,  is  taken  at 
one  working.  In  other  cases  they  arise  from  careless 
holing  or  undercutting,  without  due  attention  to  sprags 
or  props,  or  from  the  sudden  detaching  of  bell-moulds, 
or  lumps  of  ironstone,  or  masses  of  shale  from  the 
roof.  In  general  these  falls  can  only  be  guarded 
against  by  limiting  the  size  of  the  excavations,  and 
setting  timber  in  sufficient  quantity  and  in  the  most 
judicious  manner.  When  the  ordinary  colliers  are  not 
practised  or  apt  at  this  work,  it  is  important  that  it 
should  be  carried  out  by  duly  qualified  deputies.  In 
some  parts  of  the  country  an  unfortunate  system  pre- 
vails of  employing  butties,  or  contractors,  who,  intent 
on  getting  the  coal  at  a  certain  price,  are  prone  to 
neglect  the  precautions  which  cost  money,  and  which 
thus  diminish  their  profits.  In  the  long-wall  work- 
ings, where  the  fall  of  the  roof  has  for  a  stranger  a 
most  threatening  appearance,  nogs  and  pack-walls  as 
well  as  single  punch-props  aid  in  giving  the  men 
security,  but  when  the  roof  is  treacherous,  hourly 
caution  needs  to  be  exercised  by  the  managers  and 
supervisors ;  and  whilst  in  some  cases  the  premature 
removal  of  props  may  be  dangerous,  in  others  the 
omission  to  remove  some  of  them  will  cause  an 
irregular  fracture  often  attended  with  serious  results. 
iWhatever  the  method  of  work,  let  there  be  no  lack  of 
prop-wood ;  and  to  prevent  neglect  caused  by  the 
colliers'  grudging  the  time  which  would  have  to  be 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.       227 

devoted  to  it,  let  such  wood  be  cut  for  them  in  proper 
lengths,  and  carried  near  to  their  places  of  work.  It 
is  no  less  lamentable  to  note  the  great  loss  of  life  from 
supineness  and  blind  confidence  with  respect  to  the 
roof,  than  it  is  wonderful  to  see  what  may  be  done,  for 
a  limited  time,  by  a  few  well-set  sticks  of  timber  in 
the  midst  of  crush  and  pressure  that  appear  over- 
whelming. 

2.  Explosions  of  fire-damp.  —  According  to  the 
abundance  of  gas,  the  form  of  the  excavations,  and  the 
efficiency  of  the  ventilation,  explosions  may  be  either 
quite  harmless,  or  may  injure  only  one  man  or  a  few 
men  in  a  single  locality,  or  in  the  worse  cases  may 
flash  forth  with  such  lightning  speed  and  fury  as  to 
leave  not  a  man  alive. 

Certain  coals,  for  example,  are  so  fiery  that  when 
the  air-current  is  brisk  enough  to  render  the  experiment 
safe,  you  may  with  your  candle,  every  now  and  then, 
set  the  gas  alight  on  the  freshly  cut  surface,  and  it  will 
flash  and  flicker  away  for  a  few  inches  or  feet  in 
length.  But  woe  betide  the  experimenter  if  there  be 
any  roof-cavity  or  unventilated  corner  near,  in  which  a 
quantity  of  the  explosive  "  damp  "  may  have  accumu- 
lated. If  only  there  be  plenty  of  air,  such  a  bord  or 
end  may  often  be  safely  worked  with  candles,  but  the 
men  should  be  provided  with  a  wet  cloth  with  which 
they  may  dash  out  the  fire;  and  at  the  famous  Walls- 
end  pits  small  cannon  have  been  used  with  advantage 
for  extinguishing  the  flame  by  concussion,  in  case  of 
its  catching  at  the  open  lights  and  being  more  serious 
than  ordinary.  The  safety-lamp  is,  however,  now 
commonly  used  under  such  circumstances;  and  yet 
even  with  this  safeguard,  when  for  economy's  sake  the 

Q  2 


228  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

coal  is  got  by  blasting,  there  is  great  risk  of  a  flame 
being  lighted  which  may  communicate  with  other 
places  or  set  fire  to  the  coal.  Presence  of  mind — a 
virtue  often  wanting — may  in  the  outset  extinguish  a 
flash  of  this  kind,  which  if  not  instantly  combated 
may  soon  become  very  serious.  A  fire  produced  in 
this  manner,  or  by  the  spontaneous  combustion  which 
arises  in  the  small  coal  of  certain  seams,  in  a  short 
time  produces  such  a  smoke  and  "  sty  the  "  that  it  can 
only  be  approached  on  the  windward  side,  and  fre- 
quently makes  it  needful  to  retire  to  some  distance 
and  bar  off  or  isolate  the  district.  In  such  cases  dam- 
doors,  the  frames  of  which  have  been  prepared  before- 
hand at  suitable  spots  in  the  main  drifts,  may  perform 
excellent  service.  Perhaps  these  are  nowhere  seen  to 
greater  advantage  or  more  practically  useful  than  in 
the  great  under-sea  collieries  of  Whitehaven,  where 
the  Earl  of  Lonsdale  has  judiciously  had  the  lintels,  &c., 
of  dam-doors  prepared  in  the  stone  drifts  between 
faulted  districts  of  coal.* 

In  the  last  chapter  we  have  treated  of  the  methods 
of  ventilation  in  practice  where  due  attention  is  paid 
to  that  vital  subject ;  but  we  have  here  two  questions 
to  answer,  viz.,  why  is  it,  that  with  so  many  examples 
of  what  can  be  well  done,  a  large  part  of  our  collieries 
should  be  in  a  condition  far  from  satisfactory  ?  and 
how  does  it  come  to  pass  that  every  now  and  then  a 
hecatomb  of  victims  has  been  sacrificed  in  a  pit  sup- 
posed to  be  a  model  of  efficiency  ?  To  these  we  may 
reply:  1st,  that  thoughtlessness  and  opposition  to 

*  In  August,  1864,  I  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  how  promptly 
efficient  dams  were  thus  put  in  to  isolate  the  workings  of  the  new,  or 
Forster's  district,  where  the  gas  had^fired  in  the  dip  drifts, 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.       229 

discipline  among  the  men,  and  ignorance  of  principles 
and  of  good  practice,  with  parsimoniousness,  among 
the  masters  and  managers,  are  far  too  common ;  and 
2ndly,  that  the  sources  of  accident  are  so  numerous, 
and  often  so  obscure,  that  no  amount  of  precaution 
can  be  expected  to  obtain  perfect  security.  Though 
neither  men  nor  owners  are  open  to  the  sweeping 
charges  of  recklessness  often  brought  against  them, 
we  must  expect,  as  long  as  we  find  so  commonly 
among  the  pits'  company  careless,  unsteady,  or  over- 
daring  rule-breakers,  and  collieries  managed  by  a 
shopkeeper  or  joiner,  or  half-educated  young  "  gentle- 
man," a  nephew  of  the  owner,  'that  accidents  will 
occur,  which  would  be  certainly  preventible  under 
better  auspices. 

My  own  experience  on  this  latter  head,  obtained 
from  close  inquiry  for  the  Government  into  the  causes 
of  several  heavy  explosions,  before  the  system  of 
inspection  was  commenced,  and  from  frequent  visits  to 
collieries  in  most  of  our  districts,  is  strongly  confirmed 
by  the  often-repeated  statements  of  the  inspectors,  that 
a  great  amount  of  good  would  be  effected  by  local 
schools  having  a  technical  aim.  And  yet,  strange  to 
say,  although  it  is  a  subject  involving  the  health  and 
life  of  300,000  persons  directly  employed  in  our  coal 
mines,  no  approach  has  been  made,  except  at  Bristol, 
Wigan,  and  an  abortive  attempt  at  Glasgow,  to  supply 
that  kind  of  suitable  knowledge  on  mechanics,  the 
nature  of  gases,  &c.,  which,  if  it  cannot  be  extended  to 
the  mass  of  the  colliers,  is  at  all  events  so  desirable  for 
the  overmen  and  their  deputies. 

In  what  concerns  the  ventilation,  a  dangerous  state 
of  the  mine  may  arise  as  follows : — 


230  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING, 

• 

1.  Absence  or  deficiency  of  ventilating  power  in  the 
shafts. 

2.  Injudicious  plan  of  workings,  or  inattention  to 
doors,  stoppings,  size  of  air-courses,  &c.,  whereby  an 
abundant  current  at  the  shafts  is  lost  before  it  gets  to 
the  faces  of  work. 

3.  The  insecure  position  of  goafs,  or  wastes,  or  even 
small  lodgments  for  gas,  with  reference  to  the  air- 
currents  which  have  to  travel  past  men  who  are  using 
open  lights. 

4.  The  absence  of  sufficient  bratticing  in  the  bords 
or  drift  ends. 

5.  Dependence  on  too  many  doors. 

6.  The  occurrence  of  falls  in  the  air- ways  or  working 
drifts. 

7.  The  interruption  of  the  ventilating  current,  by 
repairs   in  the   shaft,  by  drawing  water,  or  by  the 
furnace  or  wind-machine  going  wrong. 

8.  A  sudden  change  of  weather,  especially  a  turn  of 
wind  to  the  south-west,  with  lower  barometer  and  higher 
temperature. 

9.  The  emission  of  gas  by  blowers,  or  by  bursting  in 
from  roof  or  floor,  in  such  quantity  as  to  overpower  the 
ventilation. 

In  this  latter  case  the  use  of  safety-lamps  can  alone 
give  security,  and  since  their  introduction  brings  into 
play  a  new  set  of  conditions,  it  is  imperatively  needful 
to  draw  up  special  rules  regarding  them,  and  in  the 
interest  of  the  owners  and  the  bulk  of  the  men  to  visit 
severely  all  the  infringements  of  regulations  which  close 
surveillance  can  detect. 

We  cannot  do  better,  in  order  to  show  what  are  the 
requirements  in  connection  with  the  use  of  safety  lamps, 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.      231 

than  quote  the  Special  Rules  as  laid  down  for  the  ex- 
tensive colliery  of  Seaton  Delaval,  under  the  able 
management  of  Mr.  T.  E.  Forster. 

1.  In  every  part  of  the  said  colliery,  where  the  pillar  working  or 
broken  is  in  operation,  stations  will  be  fixed  upon  by  the  viewer,  where 
each  workman's  safety  lamp  will  be  examined  and  securely  locked. 

From  those  stations  no  workman  is  to  take  a  safety  lamp  for  use  in 
the  pillar  working  or  broken,  without  its  having  been  examined  and 
securely  locked  by  the  overman,  inspector,  or  deputy. 

The  overman  and  inspector  to  have  full  power  to  direct  the  workmen 
how  to  use  their  safety  lamps  during  the  time  of  working  ;  and  it  is 
particularly  enjoined  that  every  workman  strictly  attend  to  such 
directions.  No  lamp  to  be  used  on  which  there  is  not  a  tin  shield. 
None  but  the  overman,  or  similar  officer  in  authority,  to  be  allowed  to 
carry  a  lamp  key. 

2.  Should  any  accident  happen  to  a  lamp  whilst  in  use,  by  which 
the  oil  is  spilt  upon  the  gauze,  or  it  be  in  any  other  way  rendered 
unsafe,  the  light  to  be  immediately  extinguished  by  drawing  the  wick 
down  within  the  tube  with  the  pricker ;  such  lamp  to  be  directly  taken 
out  to  the  station  where  the  lamps  are  examined,  and  not  to  be  again 
used  until  after  having  been  properly  examined  by  the  overman,  or 
other  responsible  person,  on  the  in-bye  side  of  which  station  towards 
the  broken  workings,  no  candles  are  to  be  taken. 

3.  Should  any  workman  using  a  safety  lamp  detect,  by  the  usual 
indications,  the  appearance  or  presence  of  fire-damp,  he  is  first  to  pull 
down  the  wick  with  the  pricker,  as  before-mentioned,  and  then  to 
retreat  to  the  lamp  station  and  give  information  of  the  same  to  the 
nearest  responsible  person,  it  being  strictly  forbidden  for  any  workman 
to  continue  to  work  in  a  place> where  such  indications  have  been  ob- 
served by  him  ;  and  should  the  flame  continue  in  the  interior  of  the 
lamp  after  the  wick  has  been  drawn  down,  the  lamp  then  to   be 
cautiously  removed,  and  no  attempt  whatever  to  extinguish  the  flame 
by  any  other  means  to  be  adopted  by  the  workman. 

4.  Every  hewer,  putter,  or  other  person,  to  whom  a  safety  lamp  is 
intrusted,  is  hereby  strictly  prohibited  from  interfering  in  any  way 
whatever  with  the  lamp,  beyond  the  necessary  trimming  of  the  wick 
with  the  pricker.     The  lamp  in  no  case  to  be  hung  upon  the  row  of 
props  next  the  goaf  or  old  work,  and  not  to  be  nearer  the  swing  of  the 
gear,  on  any  occasion,  than  two  feet. 

5.  Should  any  hewer,  putter,  or  any  other  person  whatever,  in 
charge  of  a  safety  lamp,  in  any  case  lose  his  light,  he  is  to  take  it 
himself  to  the  station  where  the  lamps  are  examined,  to  be  relighted, 


232  COAL   AND    COAL-MINING. 

examined,  and  locked  by  the  overman,  or  some  other  responsible  per- 
son, before  being  again  used. 

6.  It  is  expressly  directed  that  any  person  witnessing  any  improper 
treatment  of  the  safety  lamps  by  any  one,  shall  give  immediate  infor- 
mation to  the  overman  in  charge  of  the  pit,  so  that  a  recurrence  of 
such  conduct  may  be  prevented  by  the  offending  party  being  brought 
to  justice. 

7.  Any  person  found  smoking  tobacco  in  any  part  of  the  said  col- 
liery where  the  safety  lamp  is  used,  or  with  a  tobacco  pipe  found  in  his 
possession,  will  be  liable  to  be  taken  before  a  magistrate.     No  matches, 
under  any  pretence  whatever,  to  be  taken  down  the  pit. 

8.  No  putter,  pony-driver,  helper-up,  or  other  person,  is,  under  any 
pretext,  to  carry  a  lamp  during  his  work,  except  in  special  cases, 
where  the  parties  have  leave  to  do  so  from  the  viewer.     Lamps  will  be 
hung  along  the  going-roads,  to  afford  sufficient  light  for  the  perform- 
ance of  the  work. 

9.  Every  person  using  a  safety  lamp  to  receive  the  bottom  part  of 
the  same  himself  from  the  hands  of  the  lamp  keeper  then  in  the  pit. 
The  gauze  to  be  taken  home  at  the  end  of  each  shift,  by  the  person 
using  it,  for  the  purpose  of  having  it  properly  cleaned  before  being 
again  used. 

10.  Any  person  acting  contrary  to  the  above  instructions  will  be 
liable  to  be  taken  before  a  magistrate,  in  order  that  the  lives  of  the 
workmen  employed  therein  may  be  duly  protected.     And  any  person 
informing  against  any  offending  party  or  parties  will,  in  every  case, 
be  handsomely  rewarded.     No  riding  on  loaded  cages  except  under 
special  arrangement.     Signals,  see  Act  of  Parliament. 

11.  The  hewer  that  keeps  his  safety  lamp  in  the  best  order  for  a 
quarter  of  a  year,  will  be  entitled  to  a  premium  of  5s. ;  and  for  the 
second  best  2s.  6</.     The  putter  to  be  entitled  to  2s.  6d.  for  the  same 
length  of  time. 

It  is  a  moot  point  whether  the  men  should  take 
home  the  lamp  gauzes  to  clean,  or  whether  it  should 
be  done  for  them  by  the  colliery.  But  we  cannot  fail 
to  reprobate  the  neglectful  plan  pursued  in  some  mines 
of  throwing  upon  the  colliers  the  burden  of  purchasing 
their  lamps,  and  thus  exposing  them  to  the  temptation 
of  buying  cheap  and  unsafe  gauze.  Nor  can  one  think 
without  ire  of  the  dirty,  oily  state  of  the  battered  Davy 
that  one  has  seen  in  some  of  the  colliery  offices  of 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.       233 

central  districts,  kept  for  a  safeguard  (?)  in  case  of 
fire-damp  being  feared  as  an  occasional  visitor. 

3.  Accidents  in  Shafts. — The  breakage  of  the  rope  or 
chain  takes  place  rarely  from  bad  quality,  more  often 
from  too  long  wear  and  tear  of  the  material.  Some- 
times a  want  of  proper  horns  or  arms  to  the  drum, 
or  a  settlement  of  the  ground  at  the  shaft  top,  may 
throw  the  rope  on  to  the  axle,  and  thus  sever  it.  Any 
inequality  in  the  surface  of  the  rope-roll  which  makes 
the  rope  lap  irregularly,  and  thus  communicates  a 
heavy  jerk  to  the  weight  in  the  shaft,  is  dangerous, 
especially  with  wire  rope.  So  also  is  the  adherence  to 
small-size  drum  and  pulleys.  Many  lives,  again,  are 
lost  under  the  old  system  of  raising  the  men  in  skips 
or  boxes  hanging  free,  particularly  if  they  be  suspended 
by  two  chains  only.  The  introduction  of  cages  and 
guides  in  the  northern  districts  has  greatly  lessened 
the  liability  to  this  class  of  accident.  Against  the 
falling  of  stone,  bricks,  &c.,  from  the  sides,  a  good 
walling  and  occasionally  overhauling  and  clearing  from 
rubbish,  with  a  bonnet  or  cover  over  the  cage,  are  effi- 
cient protections.  The  numerous  deaths  from  falling 
into  the  shaft,  either  from  surface  or  from  mouthings 
opening  into  upper  seams,  may  be  in  great  measure 
prevented  by  the  use  of  light  railed  doors  or  wickets 
which  guard  the  orifice  until  the  cage  comes  up  and 
lifts  them  out  of  the  way  for  the  time  only  during 
which  access  is  needed.  Overwinding,  one  of  the 
most  frightful  of  accidents,  where  the  cage  with  its 
human  freight  is  carried  up  violently  against  the  pulleys 
overhead,  is  to  be  avoided  by  the  employment  of  only 
the  most  trustworthy  engine  drivers,  the  use  of  the 
steam-brake,  a  sufficient  height  of  pulley-frame,  and 


234  COAL   AND   COAL -MINING. 

perhaps  in  some  cases  the  use  of  the  safety  apparatus 
described  above,  in  Chap.  XIV.  It  will  be  seen  that  most 
of  these  casualties  are  preventible  by  the  rooting  out 
of  the  neglect  and  slovenliness  which  are  so  common, 
and  by  the  employment  of  suitable  and  well-inspected 
apparatus. 

4.  Holing  into  Old  Works.— A.  great  risk  is  incurred 
in  approaching  old  abandoned  workings,  sometimes 
from  their  containing  fire-damp  or  carbonic  acid,  but 
more  commonly  from  their  having  reservoirs  of  water 
ready  to  escape  under  great  pressure,  and  certain,  if 
incautiously  tapped,  to  occasion  a  disastrous  inundation. 
The  danger  is  often  sadly  magnified  from  the  lament- 
able and  unbusiness-like  absence  of  proper  plans  of  the 
old  works.  It  is  recognised  on  all  hands  that  the  only 
prudent  method  of  advancing  under  such  circumstances 
is  with  bore-holes  in  front  and  flank,  kept  five  or  six 
yards  a  head  of  the  working,  and  with  tapered  wooden 
plugs  ready  to  drive  in  as  soon  as  water  is  tapped.  The 
subject  of  the  registration  of  mine  plans  has  often  been 
mooted,  and  by  some  of  the  highest  authorities,  as 
essential  for  the  preservation  of  life  and  property  ;  but 
under  the  wretched  notion  of  letting  things  alone,  this 
humane  precaution  has  never  been  adopted  as  a  public 
measure.  If  such  plans,  drawn  to  the  true  meridian, 
instead  of  the  ever- varying  magnetic  line,  were  de- 
posited in  some  accessible  office,  many  a  valuable  life 
would  be  saved. 

5.  Miscellaneous  Accidents. — The  liability  of  men  and 
boys  to  be  crushed  and  run  over  by  trams  and  under- 
ground trains,  and  especially  on  inclines,  must  be  met 
by  strict  discipline,  and  by  providing  separate  travelling 
roads,  refuge  places,  and  sufficient  signals.  Many 


COLLIERY  ACCIDENTS  AND  THEIR  PREVENTION.       235 

accidents  occur  from  people  passing  across  the  bottom 
of  the  drawing  shaft,  which  are  simply  avoided  by 
having  a  suitable  passage  at  the  side,  and  insisting  on 
its  being  used.  As  to  the  casualties  which  occur  from 
blasting,  they  ought  to  be  entirely  eliminated  from 
the  list :  the  firing  of  a  shot  in  the  coal,  apart  from 
the  presence  of  fire-damp,  entails  no  risk  on  careful 
men ;  and  in  sharp  stone  liable  to  strike  fire,  the  use 
of  bronze-headed  tamping-bars  and  the  safety-fuze 
should  be  generally  adopted.  The  deaths  caused  by 
carbonic  acid  and  after-damp  are  too  often  due  to  the 
want  of  thought  or  the  ignorance  of  the  sufferers  them- 
selves, and  not  unfrequently  to  the  generous  daring 
with  which  they  have  rushed  forward  to  succour  others. 
A  better  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  the  gases, 
greater  caution  in  entering  unfrequented  places,  and 
improved  ventilation  must  be  looked  to  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  this  class  of  perils. 

It  may  excite  surprise  that  men  should  be  found 
willing  to  confront  so  many  dangers,  coupled  with  hard 
work  in  cheerless  gloom.  But  familiarity  with  subter- 
raneous works  shows  a  different  side  to  the  picture,  and, 
although  plenty  of  bad  cases  might  be  cited,  the  larger, 
well-managed  collieries  offer,  as  the  life- statistics  prove, 
by  no  means  unhealthy  working  places.  The  gaseous 
enemies  which  invade  them  are  invisible,  and  are 
therefore  even  too  readily  forgotten ;  and  the  work, 
though  heavy,  is  simple,  and  requires  very  little  ex- 
penditure of  thought.  Moreover,  the  wages  are,  in 
spite  of  strikes  and  associations,  as  a  rule,  very  good, 
nay,  in  some  cases  exceedingly  high,  if  men  only  choose 
to  work,  and  have  acquired  the  degree  of  skill  which 
we  find,  even  in  coal-cutting,  will  greatly  distinguish 


236  COAL   ±ND    COAL-MINING. 

certain  hewers  above  others.  Our  Cornish  miners, 
fagged  by  climbing,  and  by  high  temperature,  contend- 
ing with  rocks  of  excessive  hardness,  and,  after  all, 
earning  rarely  more  than  £3  10s.  or  £3  15s.  per 
month,  offer  a  strange  contrast  to  colliers  of  the  North, 
who  can  commonly  make  their  6s.  per  day,  and  have 
often  houses  free  of  rent,  and  coals,  and  schooling  for 
their  children  at  a  nominal  charge;  and  to  the 
Welsh  colliers,  who  in  a  good  stall  of  the  rich  Aberdare 
coal  will  get  their  8s.,  or  even  10s.,  a  day.* 

Truly,  as  contrasted  with  other  men,  the  colliers  in 
well-conducted  pits  have  not  so  much  to  grumble  over 
as  they  are  made  by  their  interested  friends  to  believe  ; 
nor  do  the  methods  so  popular  among  them  of  strikes 
and  combinations,  and  proposals  for  interfering  with 
the  management,  appear  suited  to  gain  them  enduring 
safety  and  comfort.  In  and  about  the  pits,  especially, 
it  is  plain  that  the  spirit  of  insubordination,  and  oppo- 
sition to  the  masters  and  their  rules,  are  inconsistent 
with  the  well-being  of  either  party.  And  a  ship  in  a 
storm,  with  all  the  sailors  commanding,  would  not  be 
in  a  more  dangerous  plight  than  a  fiery  colliery  with 
its  discipline  sapped,  and  no  one  in  full  authority. 

*  To  quote  a  special  instance,  the  highest  wage  made  in  March, 
1866,  at  the  Navigation  Colliery,  Mountain  Ash,  was  no  less  than 
12*.  8d.  per  day  for  twenty-three  days. 


DURATION    OF    THE    BRITISH    CO/iLFIELDS.  237 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

DURATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   COALFIELDS. 

THE  astonishing  increase  in  the  consumption  of  coal 
within  the  last  half  century  has  kept  pace  with  the 
advancement  of  various  arts  and  sciences,  and  has 
necessitated  a  constant  improvement  in  the  methods 
and  appliances  used  in  its  extraction.  Our  knowledge 
of  the  mineral  resources  of  this  and  other  countries  has 
during  the  same  time  been  placed  on  a  footing  so 
much  more  definite  than  formerly,  as  to  excite  in  the 
reflecting  mind,  conversant  with  the  heavy  drain  now 
making  on  our  coalfields,  a  reasonably-founded  anxiety 
as  to  their  duration. 

Contented  security  may  in  its  ignorance  of  the  facts 
assume,  and  persons  interested  in  maintaining  their 
own  special  trade,  may  represent  that  the  coal-seams 
are  "  practically  inexhaustible,"  and  may  stigmatise  as 
"alarmists"  those  who  would  invite  attention  to  the 
bearings  of  a  question  so  vital  to  our  immediate  pos- 
terity; but  a  fair  examination  of  the  statistics  above 
set  forth,  and  of  the  local  conditions  of  our  coal- 
bearing  districts,  will  show  that  at  least  the  time  for 
prudent  forethought  has  arrived. 

In  the  last  few  years,  accurate  surveys  have  shown 
the  certain  boundaries  of  most  of  our  coalfields,  formed 
by  the  actual  rise  to  the  surface  of  the  ground  of  the 
foundation  rocks,  in  and  under  which  no  coal  at  all  is 
contained.  In  some  other  instances  they  exhibit  a  sur- 
face boundary,  beyond  which  much  may  be  hoped  for, 


238  COAL   AXD    COAL-MINING. 


but  where  in  many  cases  the  uncertainty  and  expense 
will  greatly  reduce  the  value  of  the  extended  territory, 
or,  in  other  words,  increase  the  average  charge  at  which 
the  coals  will  be  raised.  * 

Knowing,  therefore,  most  of  the  edges,  and  pretty 
nearly  the  depth  of  all  our  recognised  stores  of  coal, 
let  us  remember  at  what  rate  we  are  now  digging 
them  out.  The  amount  of  coal  raised  in  this  country 
in  1864  shows  that,  supposing  1,300  tons  be  obtained 
per  foot  thick  per  acre,  out  of  J  ,600  which  it  actually 
contains,  there  are  now  clearing  out  in  every  hour,  day 
and  night,  for  every  day  in  the  year,  4  acres  of  coal  of 
2  feet  thick  —  1  acre  every  quarter  of  an  hour  I  There 
can  here  be  no  reproduction,  nothing  to  grow  again  ; 
"  we  are  drawing,"  as  an  able  writer*  has  well  put  it, 
"  more  and  more  upon  a  capital  which  yields  no  annual 
interest,  but  once  turned  to  light,  and  heat,  and  force, 
is  gone  for  ever  into  space."  How  fares  it  with  some 
of  our  best-known  districts  ?  —  do  they,  or  do  they  not, 
show  symptoms  of  a  change  ?  In  Shropshire  the 
workings  have  passed  away  from  the  exhausted  western 
side  of  the  field  to  group  themselves  along  the  eastern  : 
in  Staffordshire,  the  famous  Dudley  seam  will  in  a  few 
years  be  as  a  tale  that  is  told  :  in  the  great  northern 
coalfield  almost  every  available  "  royalty  "  is  taken  up, 
large  tracts  have  been  cleared  out,  and  already  projects 
are  afoot  for  leaving  terra  firma  and  working  out  under 
the  North  Sea. 

It  must,  then,  be  understood  that  the  rapid  exhaus- 
tion of  certain  districts,  and  the  calculation  of  what 
coal  remains,  are  not  the  speculations  of  theorists,  but 
the  fair  deductions  from  weights  and  measures,  ascer- 

*  Mr.  Jevons,  "  On  the  Coal  Question." 


DURATION    OF   THE    BRITISH    COALFIELDS.  239 

tained  with   a  great  amount  of   practical   care  and 
discrimination. 

I  need  not  refer  to  the  older  estimates  of  the  dura- 
tion of  our  coalfields,  for  neither  had  the  earlier  writers 
any  idea  of  the  enormous  future  increase  of  demand, 
nor  were  they  provided  with  the  requisite  data  for 
reasonable  approximations.  It  was  only  in  the  clas- 
sical coalfield  of  Durham  and  Northumberland  that 
the  position  and  character  of  the  seams  were  so  well 
known  to  the  viewers  as  to  admit,  many  years  ago,  of 
approach  to  accuracy. 

Mr.  Greenwell,  a  colliery  viewer  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  district,  taking  the  quantity  pro- 
ducible from  each  several  seam,  including  what  lies 
below  the  magnesian  limestone,  as  well  as  a  width  of 
two  miles  under  the  sea,  calculated  in  1846  that  331 
years  would,  at  the  then  existing  rate,  exhaust  the 
whole  area.  At  that  time  only  10,000,000  of  tons  per 
annum  of  round  coal  were  raised.  In  1854,  when  the 
amount  had  reached  14,000,000,  and  a  larger  propor- 
tion of  small  coal  came  to  be  available,  Mr.  T.  Y. 
Hall,  also  a  member  of  the  Northern  Institute  of 
Mining  Engineers,  estimated  the  duration  at  365  years, 
but  stated  that  it  would  be  reduced  to  256  years  if  the 
demand  were  to  increase  to  20,000,000.  And  now,  since 
the  output  has  in  1864  reached  upwards  of  22,000,000 
of  tons,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  a  constant 
increase  of  production,  it  is  obvious  that  the  time  thus 
estimated  must  be  greatly  abbreviated,  and  that  Sir 
William  Armstrong,  in  calling  attention  to  the  rapid  ex- 
haustion of  coal,  in  his  address  at  Newcastle  in  1863, 
based  his  argument  on  no  unsound  foundation. 

In  1859,  Mr.  Edward   Hull  attempted  the  more 


240  COAL   AMD   COAL-MINING. 

ambitious  task  of  making  a  similar  calculation  for  the 
whole  of  the  British  coalfields.  As  a  laborious  geolo- 
gist on  the  Government  survey,  Mr.  Hull  had  enjoyed 
excellent  opportunities  of  learning  the  structure  of 
several  of  the  coal  districts,  but  with  respect  to  others 
had  to  rely  on  data  of  various  authority.  In  each  case 
he  has  measured  the  available  area,  has  adopted  from 
the  sections  an  average  thickness  of  workable  coal,  and 
deducted  from  the  total  quantity  thus  obtained  an 
allowance  (no  doubt  difficult  to  agree  upon)  for  the 
denudation  of  the  upper  seams.  A  large  fraction  is 
then  allowed  for  quantity  worked  out,  and  loss  in 
future  workings,  leaving  us  a  total  amount  in  stock  of 
about  80,000,000,000  tons  for  the  entire  kingdom.  All 
the  coal  lying  at  a  greater  depth  than  4,000  feet  is 
excluded  from  this  estimate  as  being  beyond  reach, 
but  a  very  large  area,  amounting  to  an  increase  of  one- 
third,  is  added  to  the  coalfields,  for  extension  beneath 
newer  formations. 

We  may  cavil  at  some  of  Mr.  Hull's  numbers,  and 
disagree  with  his  notions  about  the  limit  of  depth,  but 
his  little  book  is  a  creditable  summary  of  the  chief 
features  of  our  coal  resources,  and  his  approximate 
general  estimate  the  only  one  which  is  so  founded  on 
facts  as  to  deserve  attention  ;  whilst  especially  on  the 
subject  of  reaching  coal  beneath  the  Permian  and 
Trias  formations,  no  previous  author  has  approached  it 
with  the  same  amount  of  practical  knowledge.  When 
we  pass  from  the  descriptive  part  to  the  reasoning  on  the 
coal  supply,  we  find  arguments  of  a  more  questionable 
character,  some  of  which  have  since  been  combated  by 
Mr.  Jevons  in  his  clear  and  forcible  work,  "  On  the 
Coal  Question,"  whilst  others  appear  to  have  led  to 


DURATION    OF   THE    BRITISH    COALFIELDS.  241 

false  conclusions  as  to  the  rate  of  progression  of  the 
consumption. 

It  seems  that  in  twenty  years,  ending  1860,  the 
quantity  of  coal  raised  in  Great  Britain  was  more  than 
doubled ;  but  are  we  thence  justified  in  believing  that 
in  the  next  following  twenty  years  it  will  be  again 
doubled,  and  so  on  in  geometrical  progression  ?  On 
this  view  of  the  subject,  little  more  than  a  century 
would  see  this  country  utterly  deprived  of  the  main- 
spring of  its  mercantile  greatness.  Manufactories 
without  their  motive  power,  iron-furnaces  blown  cut, 
railway  trains  brought  to  a  standstill,  steamers  re- 
placed by  sailing  ships,  our  streets  left  to  the  gloom  of 
oil  lamps,  and  our  firegrates  empty, — such  would  be 
the  dismal  prospect  of  a  nearly  approaching  time,  could 
we  give  credit  to  such  an  inference ! 

I  think,  however,  that  the  assumption  is  based  on  a 
fallacy,  and  that  although  the  numbers  for  certain 
years  appeared  to  fit  such  a  conclusion,  the  increase  to 
our  production  of  from  2,000,000  to  3,000,000  of  tons 
annually,  serious  as  it  undoubtedly  is,  will  keep  us 
within  comparatively  moderate  figures  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  and  at  all  events  defer,  as  regards  the  country 
at  large,  the  evil  day  for  two  or  three  centuries.*  But 

*  In  France  it  has  been  observed,  that  the  production  of  coal  has 
similarly  been  doubled  after  every  period  of  twelve  to  fourteen  years, 

thus : — 

Year.  Tons. 

1789 250,000 

1815 950,000 

1830 1,800,000 

1843 3,700,000 

1857 7,900,000 

1863 10,000,000 

but  the  Comit6  des  Houilleres  Franchises  think  that  the  same  rate  of 
increase  cannot  possibly  be  kept  up. 

R 


242  COAL   AND   COAL-MINING. 

beyond  this,  it  is  a  question  whether  even  the  present 
rate  of  increase  of  production  can  long  be  continued, 
and  whether  there  are  not  causes  at  work  which  will 
tend  to  raise  the  price  and  limit  the  consumption. 
Our  special  position  as  the  first  manufacturing  people 
depends  in  great  part  upon  the  cheapness  of  our  fuel, 
and  any  considerable  increase  in  price,  as  compared 
with  that  of  other  countries,  would  soon  be  deeply 
felt.*  At  present  Belgium,  France,  and  Westphalia 
are  unable  fully  to  compete  with  us ;  and  English  coal 
takes  possession  of  the  seaboard  of  the  Continent,  and 
in  numerous  cases  ascends  the  rivers  for  long  distances 
towards  the  centres  of  coal  production  of  those  coun- 
tries. And  sundry  reasons  may  account  for  the  fact. 
Nature  has  been  bountiful  to  England  not  only  in  the 
quantity,  but  in  the  comparative  regularity  of  the  coal 
seams.  In  the  best  pits  in  France  and  Belgium  the 
large,  or  round,  coal  is  seldom  more  than  45  per  cent, 
of  the  whole,  and  the  general  average  is  far  less.  The 
disturbed  position  of  the  beds  also  renders  them  more 
difficult  to  work,  and  involves  an  expense  in  the  mere 
item  of  prop-wood  alone  of  9<f.  to  Is.  per  ton,  whilst  in 
many  of  our  districts  2d.7  in  others  3d.,  on  the  ton  may 
be  the  average. 

But  if  we  are  to  be  checked  in  the  race,  the  mischief 
is  likely  to  proceed  in  great  part  from  an  internal 
canker,  from  the  irregularity  and  combativeness  of  the 
men.  What  with  the  peculiar  socialistic  views  so 
common  among  them,  and  the  facility  with  which  their 
organisation,  under  skilful  delegates,  enables  them  to 
threaten  their  masters,  the  interferences,  stoppages, 

*  For  a  masterly  treatment  of  this  important  argument  see  Jevons's 
"  Coal  Question." 


DURATION    OF    THE    BRITISH    COALFIELDS.  243 

and  interruptions  to  the  working  of  collieries  are 
becoming  an  evil  of  such  weight  as  to  constitute  an 
additional  charge  on  the  ton  of  coal.  It  would  be 
quite  out  of  place  here  to  discuss  the  subject  at  any 
length ;  but  it  must  obviously  be  taken  into  account 
in  forming  an  estimate  of  our  power  of  production.  It 
might  be  supposed  from  the  frequent  recurrence  of 
strikes,  that  the  colliers,  as  a  class,  are  ill-paid ;  but 
when  we  find  wages  of  from  5s.  to  12s.  a  day — the 
rate  for  good  hewers  from  Newcastle  down  to  South 
Wales,  we  cannot  but  see  that  there  are  other  large 
classes  of  working  men  in  the  kingdom,  bringing  equal 
skill  and  labour  to  bear  upon  their  task,  with  a  much 
less  satisfactory  result.  The  rate  of  payment  is  fairly 
brought  to  the  test  of  experiment,  being  in  most  dis- 
tricts so  much  per  tub  or  cart  of  known  capacity; 
in  the  north,  so  much  per  score  or  per  ton,  and  each 
pit  having  there  a  weighing  machine,  at  which  a 
man  is  commonly  stationed  to  watch  the  weighing 
on  behalf  of  the  colliers. 

If,  therefore,  with  these  inducements  to  steadiness 
of  work,  a  skilful  collier  nevertheless  joins  in  the  strikes 
and  agitation  for  short  hours,  weekly  pays,  with  all 
the  concomitant  idleness,  limitation  of  quantity  to  be 
got,  exclusion  from  the  pits  of  boys  under  a  certain 
age,  and  various  other  interferences  which  may  be  more 
or  less  objectionable  in  different  districts — that  man  is 
adding  a  weight  against  his  own  nation  in  the  balance 
between  ourselves  and  the  foreign  coal  producer. 

In  a  discussion  on  the  duration  of  coal,  we  should 
bear  in  mind  that  it  is  one  thing  to  obtain  a  certain 
amount  of  fossil  fuel  tolerable  in  quality,  but  dear  from 
being  wrought  under  difficulties,  and  another  thing  to 

R2 


244  COAL    A¥D    COAL-MINING. 

occupy  our  present  position  of  raising  the  best  qualities 
at  the  lowest  prices.  Most  of  our  best  districts  are 
being  stripped  at  a  fearful  rate  :  *  the  purest  household 
coal  of  the  north,  the  "  Wallsend "  of  the  London 
trade,  the  Dudley  thick  coal,  the  Wigan  cannel,  the 
Aberdare  steam-coal — where  will  they  be  fifty  years 
hence  ?  And  yet  there  is  no  help  for  this  ;  and  all  we 
have  to  see  to  is  that  they  are  made  away  with  to  the 
best  advantage.  But  the  question  follows  :  when  the 
cream  of  our  coalfields  has  thus  been  enjoyed,  what 
have  we  to  fall  back  upon  to  maintain,  at  least,  our  large 
production,  even  if  we  are  unable  to  keep  up  a  marked 
lead?  There  will  be  the  seams  that  are  coarser  in 
quality,  that  are  thinner  or  deeper,  and  those  about 
which  there  may  be  much  uncertainty,  as,  for  example, 
where  it  may  be  required  to  sink  through  overlying 
formations.  A  cloud  of  difficulties  arises  ;  but  there  are 
rays  of  light  around  it :  "  dirty  "  coals  will  be  more  com- 
monly treated  by  washing  processes — thin  seams  now 
neglected  will  turn  out  useful ;  for  if  we  can  already 
\\vrk  12  and  14-inch  coals  in  Somersetshire,  why  should 
2  feet  be  elsewhere  called  unworkable  ?  And  then  as  to 
depth,  the  improvement  of  both  pumping  and  winding 
engines  is  rendering  that  element  of  difficulty — within 
moderate  limits — a  matter  of  no  very  great  import. 

Here,  however,  we  arrive  at  a  topic  fraught  with 
much  interest.  In  South  Wales  and  Lancashire,  in 
the  coal  measures,  and  in  certain  districts  where  the 
surface  is  occupied  by  the  red  sandstones  of  the  Trias, 

*  In  order  rightly  to  appreciate  the  rate  of  exhaustion  of  the  coal, 
we  must  add  to  the  98  millions  of  tons  returned  for  1865,  a  further 
amount  for  wasted  slack,  barriers,  faulty  coal,  &c.,  of  probably  not  less 
than  30  millions  of  tons. 


DURATION    OF    THE    BRITISH    COALFIELDS.  245 

we  may  have  coal  seams  below  us  at  5,000,  8,000,  or 
10,000  feet  deep.  Some  of  the  authors  above  quoted 
think  that  the  limit  of  accessible  depth  is  4,000  feet, 
beyond  which  the  increase  of  temperature  would  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  working;  but  a  considerable 
experience  of  deep  mines  induces  me  to  believe  that 
the  difficulty  of  temperature  may,  by  due  appliances, 
be  overcome  to  a  much  greater  depth. 

It  is  sufficiently  well  known  that  experiments  made 
in  the  mines  of  various  countries  show  that  below  a 
certain  point  of  invariable  temperature  generally  reached 
at  10  to  20  yards,  the  temperature  of  the  rock  and  of 
water  contained  in  it  increases  at  the  rate  of  1°  Fahr. 
for  every  60  or  70  feet  of  descent.*  The  air  which 
travels  down  into  the  workings  is  soon  heated  ;  but 
passing  off,  and  thus  cooling  the  walls  of  the  excava- 
tions, and  constantly  replaced  by  fresh  air  from  above, 
it  enables  work  to  be  done  with  comfort  in  our  deepest 
present  mines.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  first 
opening  of  the  levels  or  drifts  at  a  depth  of  1,500  to 
2,000  feet  deep  is  a  hot  task ;  but  after  finding  the 
thermometer  in  such  cases  at  from  75°  to  88°  in  a  close 
end,  I  have  observed  that  when  the  air  has  once  cir- 
culated beyond  such  points  for  a  period  of  a  few  weeks 
or  months,  the  temperature  has  sunk  by  so  many  de- 
grees as  to  admit  of  further  working  with  facility. 
The  most  remarkable  case  of  this  rapid  cooling,  with 
which  I  am  acquainted,  is  at  the  Clifford  Amalgamated 
Mines  in  Cornwall,  where,  in  the  230-fathom  level 
(1,650  feet  from  surface)  the  air  (July,  1864)  was  104 
Fahr.,  and  close  to  the  issue  of  a  hot  spring  of  122°, 

*  The  extreme  variations  of  increment,  except  where  thermal  springs 
are  present,  are  58  feet  to  88  feet  for  one  degree  Fahr. 


246  COAL    AND    COAL-MINING. 

even  higher  ;  but  where,  in  the  220-fathom  ]evel  (1,590 
feet  deep),  it  was  only  83°,  although  when  first  open- 
ing, a  year  or  two  before,  Jit  had  been  at  100". 

The  late  Mr.  Rogers,  at  Abercarn  colliery,  in  sinking 
a  shaft  in  1851,  supplied  compressed  air  to  within  a 
few  feet  of  the  men  at  work,  which — as  I  tested  at  the 
time — in  its  escape  from  the  pipe,  cooled  the  pit  bottom 
several  degrees.  No  doubt,  therefore,  that  what  with 
a  good  ventilating  power,  and  occasionally,  it  may  be, 
by  the  aid  of  compressed  air,  the  first  winning  works 
may  be  quickly  reduced  below  the  normal  temperature 
due  to  the  depth,  and  the  subsequent  workings  be 
rendered  comparatively  cool. 

It  is  not  commonly  known  that  in  the  province  of 
Hainault,  in  Belgium,  coal  is  working  at  the  depth  of 
2,820  feet  (860  metres),  at  the  colliery  des  Viviers,  at 
Gilly,  near  Charleroy,  and  that  one  pit  at  the  same 
place  has  been  sunk  to  the  serious  depth  of  3,411  feet 
(1,040  metres).  * 

With  regard  to  other  difficulties  offered  by  great 
depths,  our  present  best  methods  of  raising  the  water 
and  coal  are,  no  doubt,  capable  of  dealing  with  a 
considerably  greater  depth  than  has  yet  been  attained. 
For  still  deeper  pits  it  may  be  suggested  either  that  a 
plant  of  engines  be  established  half  way  down,  and  the 
work  thus  effected  by  two  lifts,  or  that  reciprocating 
rods  as  in  the  Fahrkunst  or  Cornish  man-engine  may 
be  fitted,  as  proposed  by  M6hu,  and  by  Guibal,  to 
bring  up  a  constant  succession  of  coal-tubs ;  and 
although  such  modes  have  not  as  yet  been  made 
practically  economical,  we  may  rest  assured  that  the 
same  art  of  mining,  to  which  the  public  is  mainly 

*  Prof.  Trasenster,  of  Li6ge,  MS.  communication,  1866. 


DURATION    OF    THE    BRITISH    COALFIELDS.  247 

indebted  for  the  improvement  of  the  steam-engine  and 
for  the  railway,  will  not  rest  without  further  develop- 
ment of  its  appliances.* 

If  then,  as  we  have  reason  to  assert,  our  better  and 
more  accessible  coals  are  being  so  fast  wrought  out  as 
to  threaten  an  early  change  of  conditions,  what,  it  may 
be  asked,  can  be  done  to  prevent  their  exhaustion? 
Our  home  consumption  must  increase,  if  we  are  as  a 
nation  to  advance  in  prosperity,  and  its  only  check  will 
be  from  an  increase  of  the  price  at  which  it  can  be 
delivered  to  the  consumer.  This,  however,  as  compared 
with  the  cost  of  production  abroad,  will  be  the  turning 
point  in  our  progress.  As  regards  our  exports,  which 
have  risen  since  1841  from  1|  to  nearly  9  millions 
of  tons,  constituting  almost  a  tenth  of  our  production, 
it  has  often  been  suggested,  and  by  grave  authorities, 
that  a  tax  should  act  as  a  check ;  but  such  an  impost 
would  undoubtedly  be  open  to  serious  objections.  It 
has  been  held  by  certain  writers  that  the  exports  are 
sure  to  diminish  because  other  nations  are  developing 
their  own  coalfields;  but  a  little  attention  to  the 
statistics  given  above  will  show  that  during  the  very 
period  of  the  multiplication, -sixfold,  of  our  exports, 
France,  Belgium,  and  Germany  have  been  increasing 
their  output  no  less  remarkably  than  ourselves.  The 
fact  is,  that  all  the  active  nations  of  the  world  are 
every  year  requiring  more  coal  than  before,  and  a  fair 
inference  is  that  what  goes  abroad  as  well  as  what  is 
consumed  at  home  will  be  an  increasing  quantity, 
until  a  higher  price  per  ton  operates  as  a  check. 

*  An  interesting  inquiry  into  this  subject,  with  suggestions  for  new 
apparatus,  will  be  found  in  Devillez,  "  De  V Exploitation  de  la  Houille  d 
laprofondeur  d'au  moins  mille  mitres"  Lie'ge,  1859. 


248  COAL  AND  'COAL-MINING. 

But  although  we  are  thus  carried  away  by  the  stream, 
it  behoves  us  to  take  every  precaution  to  navigate  our 
craft  in  the  best  manner.  *  There  are  many  things  in 
our  individual  and  collective  mode  of  treating  coal 
mines  which  should  be  better  looked  to  in  the  interest  of 
those  who  follow  us.  We  must  admit  that  amid  the 
pressure  of  competition,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  do 
otherwise  than  take  out  in  the  cheapest  way  whatever 
pays  best ;  whence  the  strictures  sometimes  passed  upon 
our  wasteful  procedures  are,  however  true  as  regards 
the  nation  at  large,  scarcely  just  to  individual  workers.* 

The  great  waste  of  small  coal,  although  of  late  years 
less  flagitious  than  formerly,  is  still  a  lamentable  extra- 
vagance ;  for  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  millions  of 
tons  of  it  are  buried  up  annually,  in  gobs,  stowage, 
crushed  pillars,  &c.  The  remedies  which  we  may  hope 
to  see  gradually  applied,  are  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  best  selected  mode  of  laying  out  collieries, 
both  as  regards  freedom  from  crush  and  creep,  avoid- 
ance of  an  excess  of  narrow  or  strait  openings,  and 
judicious  direction  of  the  bords  or  working  faces. 

2.  The  more  general  washing  of  smalls. 

3.  The  extended  use,  partly  by  means  of  new  forms 
of  furnace,  of  slack  and  the  smaller  varieties  of  screened 
coal  (pease  and  duff)  for  manufacturing  purposes. 

4.  Employment  of  the  best  methods  of  coking. 

*  "  II  est  impossible  en  voyant  cela,  de  ne  pas  pressentir  qu'on  vs. 
trouver  a  chaque  pas  les  Anglais  abusant  des  a  vantages  naturels  qu'ils 
rencontrent  dans  les  gites  houillers  de  leur  pays." — Extract  from  a 
report.  Burat,  "  Materiel  des  Houilleres."  1865.  It  is  satisfactory  to 
be  able  to  inform  our  French  critic  that,  at  the  colliery  which  suggested 
his  remark,  the  state  of  things  is  already  improved,  simply  in  conse- 
quence of  the  increasing  demand  for  slack  for  manufactories. 


DURATION    OF    THE    BRITISH    COALFIELDS.  249 

5.  Improvement  in   the  making  of  coal- bricks  or 
"  patent  fuel,"  *  and 

6.  Last,  but  not  least,  the  application  of  coal-cutting 
machines,  some  of  which  appear  to  be  verging  close  on 
practical  utility,  will  be  the  advent  of  a  saving  that  may 
give  us  years  of  prosperity. 

A  miserable  sight  it  is  too,  to  see  a  part  of  a  seam, 
the  u  roofs  "  or  "  benches,"  as  the  case  may  be,  when  a 
parting  becomes  so  thick,  as  to  prevent  the  whole  group 
of  beds  from  being  conveniently  worked  together,  aban- 
doned and  left  uncared  for,  with  the  probability  that 
when  the  present  generation  has  died  out,  there  will  be 
no  sign  to  show  that  there  is  still  lying  there,  neglected, 
a  tract  of  what  at  some  future  day  might  offer  a  profit- 
able working.  And  intolerable,  again,  it  is  to  observe 
corners  and  plots  of  ground  sacrificed  on  account  of  the 
inconvenient  division  of  properties  on  the  surface ; 
when  often  the  avarice  or  ineptness  of  some  holder  of 
surface  fields  operates  as  a  bar  to  the  regular  working 
of  colliery  proprietors,  and  of  course  as  an  obstacle  to 
the  development  of  the  national  store. 

It  appears  hardly  credible,  when  we  consider  how 
easily  these  sources  of  sheer  waste  might  be  indicated 
in  the  maps,  and  when  we  remember  the  uncertainty 
and  the  danger  to  human  life  of  approaching  old 
workings,  that  no  arrangement  has  yet  been  made  for 
the  registry  and  preservation  of  proper  mining  plans. 

*  The  large  proportion  of  small  in  the  Belgian  and  French  coal  has  led 
the  continental  colliery  proprietors  and  machinists  to  devote  much  at- 
tention to  the  manufacture  of  briquettes  or  agglomeres,  which,  when  well 
made,  meet  with  a  large  sale.  Opinions  at  present  vary  as  to  the  best 
method  of  cementing  the  coal  fragments,  and  much  stress  is  laid  on 
the  substitution,  for  pitch  or  tar,  of  farinaceous  matter,  as  first,  I 
believe,  practised  at  Fiinfkirchen  in  Hungary. 


250  COAL    AND    COAL    MINING. 

In  no  other  country  in  Europe  is  there  such  a  laxity  in 
a  matter  of  vital  importance  to  our  successors.  Under 
the  Inspection  Act  every  colliery  is  bound  to  keep  up 
plans  on  a  certain  scale ;  but  how  partial  is  the  advan- 
tage, when  at  the  end  of  a  lease  the  documents  are  sub- 
ject to  be  lost  or  destroyed!  And  unless  the  Govern- 
ment, on  behalf  of  the  nation,  insists  upon  the  deposi- 
tion of  duly  guaranteed  mining  plans  in  a  suitable 
office,  and  lessors  and  lessees  co-operate  in  rendering 
available  at  a  future  day  those  tracts  which  the  ex- 
igencies of  trade  prevent  us  from  turning  to  present 
account,  we  remain  open  to  the  charge  of  an  unworthy 
stewardship  of  the  riches  which  a  bountiful  Nature 
has  committed  to  our  care. 


INDEX. 


Aberdare  coals,  rapid  exhaustion  of 
the,  70 ;  colliers'  wages  at,  236. 

Accidents,  from  falls,  138,  226;  hy 
explosion,  145,  227  ;  from  breakage 
of  ropes,  172,  233 ;  statistics  of,  221. 

America,  coalfields  of,  87. 

Ansell,  his  fire-damp  indicator,  200. 

Anthracite,  description  of,  16. 

Asia,  coal  in,  98. 

Asterophyllites,  description  of,  3JJ. 

Australia*,  coalfields  of,  101. 

Austria,  coal  of,  84. 

Belgium,  coalfield  of,  76 ;  deep  pits  in, 

246. 

Bituminous  coals,  17. 
Blasting  of  coal,  129,  235. 
Bord-gates,  or  up-hills,  126. 
Bords,  dimensions  of,  131. 
Boring,  methods  and  expense  of,  105. 
Boty's  safety-lamp,  198. 
Brown  coal,  19. 
Buckei-lifts  of  pumps,  178. 
Buddie,  his  improvements,  133. 

Cages,  for  shafts,  162, 172. 
Cafcing-coal,  17. 
Calamite,  description  of,  32. 
Calow's  safety  cage,  173. 
Cambois  pit,  engine  at,  184, 189. 
Candles,  pit-,  191. 

Carboniferous  limestone,  40,  68,  71. 

Carriage,  underground,  146. 

Chaudron,  his  mode  of  tubbing,  119. 

China,  early  use  of  coal  in,  100. 

Clanny's  lamp,  193. 

Cleat  of  coal,  25. 

Coal,  old  meaning  of  the  word,  1 
employed  by  the  Romans,  2;  in 
crease  of  consumption  consequen 
on  use  of  hot-blast,  10 ;  statistics  o 
Great  Britain,  13;  absence  of  re 


ceived  definition  of,  15;  varieties 
of,  16 ;  geological  position  of,  20 ; 
cutting  and  getting  of,  129;  car- 
riage of,  underground,  146 ;  dura- 
tion of,  in  Britain,  237 ;  great  amount 
wasted,  244,  248. 

Coalfields,  of  Durham  and  Northum- 
berland, 45  ;  Cumberland,  49 ;  Scot- 
land, 52 ;  Yorkshire  and  Derbyshire, 
55 ;  Lancashire,  56 ;  North  Stafford- 
shire, 58;  Shropshire,  60;  South 
Staffordshire,  61 ;  Warwickshire,  62 ; 
Leicestershire,  63  ;  Bristol  and 
Bath,  64 ;  Forest  of  Dean,  67  ; 
South  Wales,  68;  Ireland,  71; 
France,  72,  241;  Belgium,  75; 
Prussia,  78;  Austria,  84;  British 
North  America,  87;  the  United 
States,  89 ;  Asia,  98 ;  Australia,  101. 
Colliery  workings  of  the  North,  131 ; 
Lancashire,  134;  other  districts, 
135_U6. 

Coniferse  of  the  coal,  33. 
Conveyance  underground,  146. 
Creep,  destruction  of  coal  by,  132. 
Curr,  of  Sheffield,  his  improvements 

in  conveyance,  &c.,  147, 164. 
Cutting  of  "coal,  127. 

Darby,  Abraham,  succeeds  in  smelting 
iron  with  coal,  7. 

Davy,  his  invention  of  the  safety- 
lamp,  193. 

De"gousee,  his  boring  operations,  107. 

Depth,  of  pits,  at  Dukinfield,  58 ;  in 
Belgium,  76,  246  ;  of  boreholes,  107. 

Drawing  of  coal  in  shafts,  159  ;  ex 
amples  of,  163. 

Drum,  for  winding,  169 ;  Fowler's,  15b. 

Dubrulle's  lamp,  196. 

Dudley  coal,  getting  of,  136. 

Duration  of  the  coalfields,  237. 


252 


•LNDEX. 


Durham,  coalfield   of,  45;    mode  of 

working  in,  131. 
Duty,  of  steam-engir.es,  185, 187. 

Eloin's  safety-lamps,  200. 

Engine  planes,  157. 

Engines,  for  winding,  162;  pumping 

184. 

England,  coalfields  of,  45—67. 
Exports  of  coal  from  Britain,  13. 

Faces  of  coal,  25. 

Fahrkunst,  175,  246. 

Falls,  fatal  results  of,  138,  226. 

Faults,  or  troubles,  24;  of  the  Northern 

coalfield,  48. 

Ferns  of  the  coal  measures,  34. 
Fire-damp,  204,  227. 
Flintshire,  section  of  upper  coals,  121. 
Fontaine's  safety-cage,  173. 
Fourdrinier's  safety-cage,  172. 
Fowey  Consols,  duty  of  engine  at,  187 
Fowler's  clip-drum,  uses  of,  156. 
France,  coalfields  of,  72, 129,  138, 241. 
Free-burning  coal,  16,  70. 
Furnace  for  ventilation,  207. 

Ganister  floor,  26. 

Gas,  introduction  of,  8 ;  early  proposal 
to  utilise,  51 ;  various  kinds  in  coal- 
pits, 203. 

Gin,  horse-,  160. 

Grand  Hornu  colliery,  168, 169. 

Greenwell,  Mr.,  on  the  Durham  coal 
239. 

Guibal's  fans,  211. 

Guides,  or  conductors,  in  shafts,  164. 

Hall,  Mr.  T.  Y.,  on  the  Northern  coal- 
field, 239. 
Halonia,  32. 

Head-stocks,  170;  of  iron,  171. 
Hetton  colliery,  furnaces  at,  208. 
Holing  the  coal,  127. 
Hot-blast,  introduction  of,  9. 
Hull,  Mr.  E.,  on  -coal  resources,  240. 

India,  coalfield  of,  99. 

Inspection,  the  Government,  222,  249. 

Jars,  M.,  his  account  of  the  White- 
haven  collieries,  51. 

Keene,  Mr.,  statements  on  Australian 

coals,  102. 
Kind,  Herr,  his  modes  of  boring,  107. 


Lamps,  190 ;  safety,  193. 

Lancashire,  coalfield  of,  56 ;  modes  of 
working  in,  134. 

Lemielle's  ventilator,  213. 

Lepidodendron,  description  of,  30. 

Levels,  driving  of,  121 ;  inclinat  on 
of,  125. 

Lifting-pumps,  178. 

Lignite,  description  of,  19;  of  Ger- 
many and  Hungary,  83,  85. 

Llanelly,  upper  coals  of,  69, 

Long-wall  working,  139. 

Main  beam  of  engines,  188. 

Man-engine,  175,  246. 

Marco  Polo,  his  account  of  coal,  100. 

Millstone  grit,  40. 

Mollusca  of  the  coal  measures,  39. 

Monkwearmouth  colliery,  46,  163,  lt>5. 

Montceau,  working  thick  coal  at,  138. 

Mueseler's  lamp,  199. 

Murdock,  early  use  of  ga.s,  9 

Mush^t,  discoverer  of  black-bond,  11. 

Navigation  pit,  Aberdare,  130,  164. 
New  Brunswick,  coal  of,  87, 
Newcastle,  early  workings  at,  2 ;  coal- 
field of,  45;  its  probable  duration,  239. 
Newcomer.,  his  atmospheric  engines, 

Nixon's  ventilator,  211. 
Nova  Scotia,  coal  of,  87. 
Nyst's  safety-cages,  173. 

Drigin  of  coal,  41. 
Dverwinding,  accidents  by,  171 
Owen's  safety-cage,  175, 176 

Japin,  inventor  of  the  piston,  6. 
3arachutes,  or  safety-cages,  172. 
3ennsylvania,  coal  trade  of,  92. 
Pick,  varieties  of,  126. 
Pillar  working,  130,  133,  135,  137. 
'ittsburg,  fine  seam  of,  91. 
'lanes,  engine-,  in  collieries,  157. 
Plans,  neglect  of  registration  of,  234, 

°lants  of  the  coal-measures,  29, 
Plunger  pumps,  181. 
^ost  and  stall  work,  130. 
'otteries  coalfield,  59. 
'rice  of   coals  high  in  Belgium,  78, 

and  in  France,  75. 

Russia,  important  coalfields  of,  78, 82. 
3ulley-frames,  170. 


INDEX. 


253 


Putnping  of  water,  176 ;  engines,  184. 

Rails,  first  employed  by  the  Germans, 

14b ;  improved  bv  Curr  and  others, 

147. 

Raising  in  shafts,  159. 
Reporting  of  steam-engines,  186. 
Reptiles  of  the  coal  period,  38. 
Roads,   underground,   125,  142,   147, 

157. 
Rogers,  Prof.,  his  account  of  American 

coalfields,  89. 

Roof  of  coals,  26 ;  accidents  from,  226. 
Ropes,  168. 
Russia,  coal-measures  of,  85. 

Saarbriick,  important  coalfield  of,  79. 

Safety-cages,  172. 

Safety-lamps,  193 ;  where  necessary, 
201 ;  rules  for  use  of,  231. 

Savery,  his  engine,  5, 

Saxony,  coal  of,  83. 

Scotland,  coalfields  of,  52. 

Scottish  iron  trade,  11. 

Seams,  variation  in  thickness,  27,  67. 

Seaton  Delaval  colliery,  161,  171,  231. 

Shafts,  form  of,  109;  difficulties  of 
sinking,  110;  lining  of,  111;  tub- 
bing, 114 ;  drawing  in,  159 ;  deepest 
now  working,  246. 

Shireoaks  Colliery,  tubbing  at,  118 ; 
winding,  168. 

Sigillaria,  description  of,  29 ;  forming 
chief  mass  of  certain  coals,  83. 

Silesia>  coalfields  of,  81. 

South  America,  coal  of,  103. 

Spain,  coal  production  of,  85. 

Staffordshire  coalfields,  58,  61 ;  work- 
ings in,  136. 

Statistics  of  coal  production  in  Britain, 
13;  of  Northern  coalfield,  49;  of 
coals  of  Scotland,  54 ;  of  the  cen- 
tral English  fields,  63 ;  of  Prussia, 
82.;  United  States,  95  ;  Saxony,  84; 
of  accidents  in  coal  mines,  221. 

Steam-engines,  invention  of,  5  ;  under- 
ground, 158  ;  for  winding,  162. 

Steam-jet  for  ventilation,  214. 

Steel  mill,  of  Spedding,  192. 

Stephenson's  safety-lamp,  196. 


Sternbergia,  33. 

Stigmaria,  description  of,  30. 

Struve's  ventilator,  209. 

Temperature  of  upcast  pits,  208;  of 
mines,  245. 

Ten-yard  coal  of  Dudley,  61. 

Thick  coal,  of  South  Staffordshire,  61, 
136 ;  of  central  France,  74,  138. 

Thickness  of  coal-measures  in  South 
Wales,  69 ;  in  Saarbriick,  80. 

Thill,  or  floor  of  coal-seams,  25. 

Thin  coals  worked  in  Somersetshire, 
65,  142. 

Timbering  of  levels,  &c.,  124. 

Tresavean,  example  of  pit-work,  182. 

Trevi thick,  his  improvements  in  boil- 
ers, 186. 

Triger,  his  mode  of  sinking  in  watery 
ground,  113. 

Tubbing  of  shafts,  methods  of,  114. 

Tubs,  or  trams,  in  collieries,  152. 

Turkey,  coalfield  in  Asiatic,  98. 

United  States,  coalfields  of,  89;  pro- 
duction of,  95. 

Ventilating-machines,  209. 
Ventilation,  202,  228;    spontaneous, 
205;  artificial,  206. 

Wages,  rate  of  colliers',  235,  243. 
Wales,  North,  coalfield  of,  121. 
Wales,  South,  coalfield  of,  68 ;  modes 

of  working  in,  135,  143. 
Water-balance,  for  raising  coal,  161. 
Watt's  engines,  185. 
Wealden  coal,  in  Germany,  81. 
Westphalia,  coalfield  of,  79,  82 ;  stone 

tubbing  in,  119. 
Whitehaven  collieries,  50 ;  dam  doors 

in,  228. 

Winding  of  coal,  159. 
Windlass,  raising  of  coal  by,  159. 
Winning  of  a  colliery,  122. 
Wood,  Nicholas,  on  railways,  148, 154. 

Yorkshire,  method  of  working  in,  145. 
Zwickau,  early  workings  at,  3. 


VIRTUE  AND    CO.,  PBINTEBS,  CITY  BOAD,  LONDON. 


56  Ludgate  Hill 

July,  1869 


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14  Strahan  and  Co.'s 

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See  JURORS'  REPORTS, 
CLASS  XXIX. 


CATALOGUE 


RUDIMENTARY,  SCIENTIFIC,  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
WORKS, 

FOR  COLLEGES,  HIGH  AND  ORDINARY  SCHOOLS, 
AND  SELF-INSTRUCTION ; 

ALSO   FOR 

MECHANICS'  INSTITUTIONS,   FREE  LIBRARIES,  &c. 

%*    The  Entire  Series  is  freely  Illustrated  where  requisite, 
*#*  Additional  Volumes  are  in  Preparation. 

Agriculture. 

66.     CLAY  LANDS    AND    LOAMY  SOILS.      By    J. 

Donaldson i     o 

140.  SOILS,  MANURES,  AND  CROPS.     By  R.  Scott 

Burn       ............20 

141.  FARMING,  AND    FARMING   ECONOMY,    His- 

torical and  Practical.    By  R.  Scott  Burn          .        .        .        .30 

142.  CATTLE,  SHEEP,  AND  HORSES.    By  R.  Scott 

Burn 26 

145.  MANAGEMENT     OF     THE     DAIRY— PIGS- 

POULTRY.     By    R.    Scott    Burn.     With    Notes  on    the 
Diseases  of  Stock,  by  a  Veterinary  Surgeon      .        .        .        .20 

146.  UTILISATION  OF  TOWN  SEWAGE— IRRIGA- 

TION—RECLAMATION  OF  WASTE  LAND.     By  R. 

Scott  Burn 26 

Nos.  140  to  146  in  Two  Vols.,  145. 


20  Strahhn  and  Cols 


Architecture  and  Building. 

16.     AR CHITE CTURE,  Orders  of.     By  W.  H.  Leeds        .it 

17. ,  Styles  of.     By  T.  Talbot  Bury      .    i    6 

Nos.  16  and  17  in  One  Vol.,  as.  6d. 

1 8. ,  Principles  of  Design.    By  E.  L. 

Garbett ,....20 

Nos.  16  to  18  in  One  Vol.,  55.  6d. 

22.  BUILDING,  the  Art  of.     By  E.  Dobson    .       .       .       .16 

23.  BRICK  AND   TILE  MAKING.      By  E.    Dobson. 

With  Additions  by  C.  Tomlinson  and  R.  Mallet      .        .        .    3    o 
25.    MASONRY  AND  STONE-CUTTING.    By  E.  Dob- 
son.    New  Edition,  with  Appendix  on  the  Preservation  of 
Stone     .  26 

30.     DRAINING  AND   SEWAGE   OF  TOWNS  AND 

BUILDINGS.    By  G.  E>.  Dempsey 20 

With  No.  29 — Draining  Districts  and  Lands,  Two  Vols.  in  One,  35. 

35.  BLASTING  AND  QUARRYING  OF  STONE,  &c. 

By  Field-Marshal  Sir  J.  F.  Burgoyne i    6 

36.  DICTIONAR  Y  OF  TECHNICAL  TERMS  used  by 

Architects,  Builders,  Engineers,  Surveyors,  &c.        .        .        .40 
Cloth  boards,  55. ;  half  morocco,  6s. 

42.     COTTAGE  BUILDING.     By  C.  B.  Allen      .       .       .10 

44.  FOUNDATIONS  AND  CONCRETE  WORKS.     By 

E.  Dobson i    6 

45.  LIMES,    CEMENTS,    MORTARS,    CONCRETE, 

MASTICS,  &c.    By  G.  R.  Burnell,  C.E i    6 

57.     WARMING  AND   VENTILATION.     By  C.  Tom- 
linson, F.R.S 3    ° 

83**.  DOOR    LOCKS   AND   IRON    SAFES.      By   C. 

Tomlinson,  F.R.S.,  and  Robert  Mallet,  C.E.,  F.R.S.      .        .26 

in.  ARCHES,  PIERS,  AND  BUTTRESSES.     By  W. 

Bland i    6 

1 16.  A COUSTICS  OF  PUBLIC  BUILDINGS.    By  T.  R. 

Smith i     6 

123.  CARPENTRY    AND     JOINERY.      Founded    on 

Robison  and  Tredgold         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .16 

!  23  * .  — .    ILL  USTRA  TIVE  PL  A  TES  to  the 

preceding.    4to ,        .        .46 

124.  ROOFS  FOR  PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  BUILD- 

INGS.   Founded  on  Robison,  Price,  and  Tredgold         .        .16 

124*.  IRON  ROOFS  OF  RECENT  CONSTRUCTION. 

— Descriptive  Plates.     4to 46 

127.  ARCHITECTURAL    MODELLING   IN  PAPER, 

Practical  Instructions.     By  T.  A.  Richardson,  Architect        .     i     6 

128,  VITRUVIUS'S  ARCHITECTURE.     Translated  by 

J.  Gwilt.    With  Plates 50 


Book  List.  21 


130.  GRECIAN  ARCHITECTURE,  Principles  of  Beauty 

in.     By  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen i    o 

Nos.  128  and  130  in  One  Vol.,  ^s. 

132.  ERECTION  OF  DWELLING-HOUSES.  With 
Specifications,  Quantities  of  Materials,  &c.  By  S.  H. 
Brooks.  27  Plates 26 

156.  QUANTITIES  AND  MEASUREMENTS:  flow  to 

Calculate  and  Take  them  in  Bricklayers',  Masons',  Plas- 
terers', Plumbers',  Painters',  Paper- Hangers',  Gilders', 
Smiths',  Carpenters',  and  Joiners'  Work.  With  Rules  for 
Abstracting,  &c.  By  A.  C.  Beaton i  o 

Arithmetic  and  Mathematics. 

32.    MATHEMATICAL    INSTRUMENTS,    their    Con- 

struction,  Use,  &c.    By  J.  F.  Heather      .        .        .        .        .16 

60.  LAND  AND  ENGINEERING  SURVEYING.  By 

T.  Baker 20 

61*.  READY  RECKONER  FOR  THE  ADMEASURE- 
MENT AND  VALUATION  OF  LAND.  By  A.  Arman  i  6 

76.  GEOMETR  Y,  Descriptive.  With  a  Theory  of  Shadows 
and  Perspective,  and  a  Description  of  the  Principles  and 
Practice  of  Isometrical  Projection.  By  J.  F.  Heather  .  .20 

83.  COMMERCIAL    BOOK-KEEPING.      By    James 

Haddon         ...........     i    o 

84.  ARITHMETIC,  with  numerous  Examples.    By  J.  R. 

84*.  KEY  TO  THE  ABOVE.    By  J.  R.  Young         \          x    6 

85.  EQUATIONAL    ARITHMETIC;    including  Tables 

for  the  Calculation  of  Simple  Interest,  with  Logarithms  for 
Compound  Interest,  and  Annuities.  By  W.  Hipsley  .  .10 

85*.  SUPPLEMENT  TO  DITTO      .  ,   ,   0 

Nos.  85  and  85*  in  One  Vol.,  2S. 

86.  ALGEBRA.    By  J.  Haddon 20 

86*.  KEY  AND  COMPANION  TO  THE  ABOVE.    By 

J.  R.  Young i     6 

88.     THE  ELEMENTS   OF  EUCLID,  with  Additional 

Propositions,  and  Essay  on  Logic.     By  H.  Law       .         .         .20 

oo.  ANALYTICAL  GEOMETRY  AND  CONIC  SEC- 
TIONS. ByJ.  Hanr. i  o 

91.  PLANE  TRIGONOMETRY.    By  J.  Hann   .  .   x   0 

92.  SPHERICAL  TRIGONOMETRY.    By  J.  Hann       .    x    0 

i  Nos.  91  and  92  in  One  Vol.,  2s. 

93.  MENSURATION.    By  T.  Baker ,  x    6 

94.  MATHEMATICAL     TABLES,     LOGARITHMS; 

with  Tables  of  Natural  Sines,  Cosines,  and  Tangents.    By 

H.  Law,  C.E 20 

96.     ASTRONOMY.     By  the  Rev.  R.  Main     .       .       .       .    x    6 


22  Strahtfn  and  Co.'s 

1 01.  DIFFERENTIAL     CALCULUS.      By    W.    S.    B. 

Woolhouse    ..........        .10 

101*.   WEIGHTS,    MEASURES,   AND   MONEYS   OF 

ALL  NATIONS;  with  the  Principles  which  Determine  the 
Rate  of  Exchange.    By  W.  S.  B.  Woolhouse  .        .        .        .16 


102.  INTEGRAL  CALCULUS,  Rudiments.    By  H.  Cox, 

B.A 10 

^.INTEGRAL  CALCULUS,  Examples  on.   By  J.  Hann    I    0 

104.  DIFFERENTIAL    CALCULUS,   Examples.     By  J. 

Haddon i    o 

105.  ALGEBRA,    GEOMETRY,   AND    TRIGONOME- 

TRY, in   Easy  Mnemonical   Lessons.     By  the  Rev.   T.   P. 
Kirkman        .......         ....16 

117.  SUBTERRANEOUS  SURVEYING,  AND  THE 
MAGNETIC  VARIATION  OF  7^HE  NEEDLE.  By 
T.  Fenwick,  with  Additions  by  T.  Baker 26 

131.  READY-RECKONER  FOR  MILLERS,  FAR- 
MERS, AND  MERCHANTS,  showing  the  Value  of  any 
Quantity  of  Corn,  with  the  approximate  Values  of  Mill-stones 
and  Mill-work i  o 

136.  R  UDIMENTAR  Y  ARITHMETIC.     By  J.  Haddon, 

edited  by  A.  Arman i    6 

137.  KEY  TO  THE  ABOVE.     By  A.  Arman       .       /    7.    x   6 

147.  STEPPING-STONE   TO  ARITHMETIC.     By  A. 

Arman  ...........        .10 

148.  KEY  TO  THE  ABOVE.    By  A.  Arman       .       .       .    i   o 

158.  THE  SLIDE  RULE,  AND   HOW  TO    USE  IT. 

With  Slide  Rule  in  a  pocket- cover 30 

Civil  Engineering. 

13.     CIVIL  ENGINEERING.     By  H.  Law  and  G.  R. 

Burnell 46 

29.    DRAINING  DISTRICTS  AND  LANDS.      By  G. 

D.  Dempsey .     i    6 

With  No.  30,  Drainage  and  Sewage  of  Towns,  Two 
Volumes  in  One,  35. 

3 1 .     WELL-SINKING,  BORING,  AND  PUMP-  WORK. 

By  J.  G.  Swindell,  revised  by  G.  R.  Burnell     .        .        .        .10 

43.  TUBULAR  AND  IRON  GIRDER  BRIDGES, 
including  the  Britannia  and  Conway  Bridges.  By  G.  D. 
Dempsey  ...........  i  6 

46.  ROAD-MAKING     AND     MAINTENANCE      OF 

MACADAMISED  ROADS.    By  Field-Marshal  Sir  J.  F. 
Burgoyne i     6 

47.  LIGHTHOUSES,  their  Construction  and  Illumination. 

By  Alan  Stevenson 30 


Book  List.  23 


62.,  RAILWAY  CONSTRUCTION.  By  Sir  M.  Stephen- 
son.  With  Additions  by  E.  Nugent,  C.E.  [/«  preparation. 

62*.  RAILWAY  CAPITAL    AND  DIVIDENDS,   with 

Statistics  of  Working.    By  E.  D.  Chattaway  .        .        .        .10 

78.     STEAM  AND  LOCOMOTION,  on  the  Principle  of 

connecting-  Science  with  Practice.     By  J.  Sewell     .         .         .20 

80*.  EMBANKING  LANDS  FROM  THE  SEA.    By  J. 

Wiggins         ...........     20 

82**.  A  TREATISE  ON  GAS  WORKS,  AND  THE 
PRACTICE  OF  MANUFACTURING  AND  DISTRI- 
BUTING COAL  GAS.  By  S.  Hughes,  C.E.  .  .  .30 

82***.   WATER-WORKS    FOR     THE    SUPPLY    OF 

CITIES  AND  TOWNS.    By  S.  Hughes,  C.E.    .        .        .30 

118.  CIVIL  ENGINEERING  OF  NORTH  AMERICA. 

By  D.  Stevenson  ......        ....30 

120.  HYDRAULIC  ENGINEERING.     By  G.  R.  Burnell    3    0 

121.  RIVERS  AND    TORRENTS,  with  the  Method   of 

Regulating  their  Course  and  Channels,  Navigable  Canals, 

&c.,  from  the  Italian  of  Paul  Frisi      .         .         .         .         .         .26 


Emigration. 

154.  GENERAL  HINTS  TO  EMIGRANTS       .       .  2    0 

157.  EMIGRANT'S    GUIDE    TO   NATAL.     By  R.  J. 

Mann,  M.D.          ..........20 

159.  EMIGRANT'S  GUIDE  TO  NEW  SOUTHS  ALES, 
WESTERN  AUSTRALIA,  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA,  VIC- 
TORIA, AND  QUEENSLAND.  By  James  Baird,  B.A.  .  2  6 

1  60.  EMIGRANT'S  GUIDE  TO  TASMANIA  AND 
NEW  ZEALAND.  By  James  Baird,  B.A.  [In  preparation. 

Fine  Arts. 

20.     PERSPECTIVE.     By  George  Pyne    .....    2    0 

27.     PAINTING  ;   or,  a    Grammar   of  Colouring.     By   G. 

Field      ............    20 

40.  GLASS  STAINING.     By  Dr.  M.  A.  Gessert.    With 

an  Appendix  on  the  Art  of  Enamel  Painting,  &c.     .         .         .10 

41.  PAINTING  ON  GLASS,  from  the  German  of  From- 

berg       ............     10 

69.     MUSIC,  Treatise  on.     By  C.  C.  Spencer    .       .       .  2    0 

71.     THE  ART  OF  PLAYING  THE  PIANOFORTE. 

By  C.  C.  Spencer         .........     i     o 


24  Sirahan  and  Co.'s 


Legal  Treatises. 

50.    LAW    OF    CONTRACTS    FOR    WORKS    AND 

SERVICES.    By  David  Gibbons     .        .        .        .        .        .16 

1 08.  METROPOLIS  LOCAL  MANAGEMENT  ACTS   \   6 

108*.  METROPOLIS   LOCAL    MANAGEMENT 

AMENDMENT  ACT,  1862.    With  Notes  and  Index  .        .10 
Nos.  108  and  to8*  in  One  Vol.,  2s.  6d. 

109.  NUISANCES  REMOVAL  AND  DISEASES  PRE- 

VENTION AMENDMENT  ACT       10 

no.  RECENT  LEGISLATIVE  ACTS  applying  to  Con- 
tractors, Merchants,  and  Tradesmen i  o 

151.  THE     LAW    OF    FRIENDLY,     PROVIDENT, 

BUILDING,  AND  LOAN  SOCIETIES.    By  N.  White    i    o 
163.  THE  LAW  OF  PATENTS  FOR  INVENTIONS. 

By  F.  W.  Campin,  Barrister .20 

Mechanics  and  Mechanical  Engineering. 

6.    MECHANICS.     By  Charles  Tomlinson     .       .'     .-    .    x    6 

12.  PNEUMATICS.  By  Charles  Tomlinson.  New  Edi- 
tion   .  .  .  .  .16 

33.  CRANES   AND   MACHINERY  FOR   RAISING 

HE  A  VY  BODIES,  the  Art  of  Constructing.    By  J.  Glynn  .     i    o 

34.  STEAM  ENGINE.     By  Dr.  Lardner        .       .       .  x    0 

59.  STEAM  BOILERS,  their  Construction  and  Manage- 
ment. By  R.  Armstrong.  With  Additions  by  R.  Mallet  .  i  6 

63.  A  GRICUL  TURAL  ENGINEERING,  BUILDINGS, 
MOTIVE  POWERS,  FIELD  MACHINES,  MACHI- 
NERY AND  IMPLEMENTS.  By  G.  H.  Andrews,  C.E.  3  o 

67.     CLOCKS,   WATCHES,   AND   BELLS.    By  E.   B. 

Denison.    New  Edition,  with  Appendix 36 

N.B. — Appendix  (to  the  4th  and  5th  Editions)  sold  separately,  is. 

77*.  ECONOMY  OF  FUEL.    By  T.  S.  Prideaux  .  r    6 

78*.  THE  LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINE.     By  G.  D.  Dempsey    t    6 
79*.  ILLUSTRATIONS  TO  THE  ABOVE.    4to.     .          4   6 

80.  MARINE  ENGINES,  AND  STEAM  VESSELS, 
AND  THE  SCREW.  By  R.  Murray.  With  Additions 
by  E.  Nugent,  C.E.,  and  Glossary  of  Technical  Terms,  with 
their  equivalents  in  French,  German,  and  Spanish  .  .  .30 

82.     WATER  POWER,  as  applied  to  Mills,  &c.     By  J. 

Glynn 2    o 

97.  STATICS  AND  DYNAMICS.     By  T.  Baker       .  t    0 

98.  MECHANISM  AND  MACHINE   TOOLS,    by  F. 

Baker;  and  TOOLS  AND  MACHINERY,  by  J.  Nasmyth    2    6 


Book  List.  25 

113*.  MEMOIR  ON  SWORDS.    By  Col.  Marey.    Trans-*' 

lated  by  Lieut.-Col.  H.  H.  Maxwell          .        .    '   .        .        .10 

1 14.  MA  CHINER  Y,  Construction  and  Working.     By  C.  D. 

Abel i    6 

US-  PLATES  TO  THE  ABOVE.    4to. 7    6 

125.  COMBUSTION  OF  COAL,  AND  THE  PREVEN- 
TION OF  SMOKE.  ByC.  Wye  Williams,  M.I.C.E.  .  3  o 

139.  STEAM  ENGINE,  Mathematical  Theory  of.     By  T. 

Baker i    o 

155.  ENGINEER'S  GUIDE  TO  THE  ROYAL  AND 
MERCANTILE  NAVIES.  By  a  Practical  Engineer. 
Revised  by  D.  F.  McCarthy 30 

ib2.  THE  BRASS  FOUNDER'S  MANUAL.     By  W. 

Graham         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .26 

Navigation  and  Shipbuilding. 

51.     NAVAL  ARCHITECTURE.    By  J.  Peake  .       .       .    3    0 
53*.  SHIPS  FOR    OCEAN  AND   RIVER   SERVICE, 

Construction  of.     By  Captain  H.  A.  Sommerfeldt    .         .         .10 

53**.  ATLAS     OF    FIFTEEN    PLATES     TO     THE 

ABOVE.    Drawn  for  Practice.    4to 76 

54.  MASTING,    MAST- MAKING,    AND    RIGGING 

OF  SHIPS.    By  R.  Kipping    .        .        .        .        .        .        .16 

54*.  IRON  SHIP-BUILDING.    By  J.  Grantham.     Fifth 

Edition,  with  Supplement 40 

54**.  PLATES  TO  THE  ABOVE 38    0 

55.  NA  VIGATION;  the  Sailor's  Sea  Book  :  How  to  keep 

the  Log  and  Work  it  off,  &c.  ;  Law  of  Storms,  and  Explana- 
tion of  Terms.     By  J.  Greenwood 20 

83  bis.  SHIPS  AND  BOATS,  Form  of.     By  W.  Bland      .    x    6 
99.    NA  UTICAL  A STR  ONOMY  AND  NA  VIGA  TION. 

By  J.  R.  Young 20 

ioo*.  NA  VIGATION  TABLES,  for  Use  with  the  above     .    j    6 

106.  SHIPS'  ANCHORS  FOR  ALL  SERVICES.    By  G. 

Cotsell i 

149.  SAILS   AND    SAIL-MAKING.      By    R.  Kipping, 

N.A 26 

Physical  and  Chemical  Science. 

1.  CHEMISTRY.     By  Prof.  Fownes.     With  Appendix 

on  Agricultural  Chemistry.     New  Edition,  with  Index    .         .10 

2.  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY.     By  Charles  Tomlinson    i    0 

3.  GEOLOGY.    By  Major-Gen.  Portlock.    New  Edition, 

with  Index    .."........16 

4.  MINERALOGY.    By  A.  Ramsay,  Jim.    .       .       .     •  .    3    0 
7.       ELECTRICITY.     By  Sir  W.  S.  Harris     .  .    x    6 


26  Strahan  and  Cols 


7*.  GALVANISM,  ANIMAL  AND  VOLTAIC  ELEC- 
TRICITY. By  Sir  W.  S.  Harris i  6 

8.       MAGNETISM.     By  Sir  W.  S.  Harris       .       .       .       .36 
Nos.  7,  7*,'  and  8  in  One  Vol.,  75.  6d. 

ii.  HISTORY  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  ELEC- 
TRIC TELEGRAPH.  By  Robert  Sabine,  C.E.,  F.S.A.  .  3  o 

72.  RECENT  AND  FOSSIL  SHELLS  (A  Manual  of 
the  Mollusca).  By  S.  P.  Woodward.  With  Appendix  by 
Ralph  Tate,  F.G.S 66 

In  cloth  boards,  75.  6d. ;  in  half  morocco,  8s.  6d.   The  Appendix  separately,  is. 

79**.  PHOTOGRAPHY,  The  Stereoscope,  &c.,  from  the 

French  of  D.  Van  Monckhoven.     By  W.  H.  Thornthwaite     .     i    6 

133.  METALLURGY   OF    COPPER.     By    Dr.    K.    H. 

Lamborn        ...........20 

134.  METALLURGY  OF  SILVER   AND   LEAD.     By 

Dr.  R.  H.  Lamborn 20 

135.  ELECTRO-METALLURGY.     By  A.  Watt  .       .       .    2    0 

138.  HANDBOOK   OF   THE    TELEGRAPH.     By   R. 

Bond ..        .'.        .        .10 

143.  EXPERIMENTAL    ESSAYS—  On    the    Motion    of 

Camphor  and  Modern  Theory  of  Dew.    By  C.  Tomlinson     .     i    o 

161.  QUESTIONS  ON  MAGNETISM,  ELECTRICITY, 
AND  PRACTICAL  TELEGRAPHY,  for  the  Use  of  Can- 
didates and  Students.  By  W.  McGregor,  Assistant  Super- 
intendent of  Indian  Telegraphs i  6 

Miscellaneous  Treatises. 

112.  DOMESTIC  MEDICINE.     By  Dr.  Ralph  Gooding    2    0 
112*.  THE  MAN  A  GEMENT  OF  HEAL  TH.    By  James 

Baird  » i     o 

113.  USE  OF  FIELD  AR  TILLER  Y  ON  SER  VICE.     By 

Taubert.     Translated  by  Lieut.-Col.  H.   H.  Maxwell     .        .16 

150.  LOGIC,   PURE  AND  APPLIED.    By   S.  H.  Em- 

mens      ............     i     6 

152.  PR  A  CTICAL  HINTS  FOR  INVESTING  MONE  Y; 

with  an  Explanation  of  the  Mode  of  Transacting  Business  on 

the  Stock  Exchange.     By  Francis  Playford,  Sworn  Broker    .     i    o 

153.  LOCKE  ON  THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  HUMAN 

UNDERSTANDING,  Selections  from.    By  S.  H.  Emmens    2    o 

New  Series  of  Educational  Works. 

Cloth     Half 
Limp,  boards,  mrco. 

I.       ENGLAND,  History  of.  By  W.D.Hamilton     40     50     56 
Also  in  Four  Parts,  is.  each. 

5.       GREECE,  History  of.     By  W.  D.  Hamilton 

and  E.  Levien,  M.A 263640 


Book  List.  27 


Cloth    Half 

Limp,  boards,  mrco. 

s.  d.      s.  d.      s.  d. 

7.      ROME,  History  of.    By  E.  Levien,  M.A.     .     2  6     36     40 

9.  CHRONOLOGY  OF  HISTORY,  LITE- 
RA  TURE,  ART,  AND  PROGRESS,  from  the 
Earliest  Period  to  the  Present  Time  .  .  .263640 

11.  ENGLISH  GRAMMAR.    By  Hyde  Clarke, 

D.C.L  ..........     10 

11*.  HANDBOOK  OF  COMPARATIVE  PHI- 

LOLOGY.   By  Hyde  Clarke,  D.C.L.  .        .        .10 

12.  ENGLISH  DICTIONARY,  above  100,000 

words,  or  50,000  more  than  in  any  existing  work. 

By  Hyde  Clarke,  D.C.L  ......      364650 

---  •  with   Grammar  5  6     6  0 


14.     GREEK  GRAMMAR.  By  H.  C.  Hamilton     z  0 

1  5  .     -  DICTION  AR  F.  By  H.  R.  Hamil- 

ton.   Vol.  i.    Greek  —  English      .        .        .        .20 

17.     ----  Vol.  2.  English  — 

Greek        .........      20 

--   Complete  in  One  Volume  .       .       .405056 
---  -with   Grammar  60     66 


19.  LA  TIN  GRAMMAR.  By  T.  Goodwin,  M.A.     x  0 

20.  LATIN  DICTIONARY.    By  T.  Goodwin, 

M.A.    Vol.  i.    Latin— English     .        .        .        .20 

22.     Vol.  2.  English — 

Latin i  6 

. Complete  in  One  Volume  .       .       .364650 

with   Grammar  5  6     60 

24.  FRENCH  GRAMMAR.    By  G.  L.  Strauss     i  0 

25.     DICTIONARY.    By  A.  Elwes. 

Vol.  i.    French — English i  o 

26.  • Vol.  2.  English — 

French i  6 

-  Complete  in  One  Volume  .       .       .263640 
with   Grammar  4  6     50 

27.  ITALIAN  GRAMMAR.    By  A.  Elwes.     .     !  0 

28. TRIGLOT  DICTIONARY.^ 

A.  Elwes.    Vol.  i.    Italian — English — French    .      2  o 

30. Vol.  2.  English — French — Italian     2  o 

$2.     —  Vol.  3.  French — Italian — English     2  o 

Complete  in  One  Volume      .  7686 

with  Grammar  86     96 

34.     SPANISH  GRAMMAR.     By  A.  Elwes     .     i  0 


28  Strahan  (bid  Co.'s  Book  List. 

Cloth     Half 
Limp,  boards,  mrco. 

35.     SPANISH— ENGLISH,  AND  ENGLISH 

—SPANISH DICTIONARY.    By  A.  Elwes    .      40      50      56 
with  Grammar  60     66 

39.  GERMAN  GRAMMAR.   By  G.  L.  Strauss     x  0 

40.  -  -  READER,   from  best  Authors     x  0 

41.  GERMAN     TRIGLOT    DICTIONARY. 

By  N.  E.  S.  A.  Hamilton.     Vol.  x.      English- 
German — French     .        .        .        .        .        .        .10 

42.  —Vol.2.  German — French — English     I0 
43. Vol.  3.  French — German — English     i  0 

Complete  in  One  Volume      .       .     3  0     40     46 

with  Grammar  5  0     56 

44.     HEBREW  DICTIONARY.    By  Dr.  Bress- 

lau.    Vol.  i.    Hebrew — English    .        .        ..60 

-  with  Grammar     7  0 

46. Vol.  2.     Eng- 
lish— Hebrew    .        .        .        .        .        ,        .        .      30 

-  Complete,  with 

Grammar.    In  Two  Volumes         .        .        .        .  12  o     14  o 

46.  — —  -    GRAMMAR.    By  Dr.  Bresslau     i  0 

47.  FRENCH  AND    ENGLISH  PHRASE- 

BOOlt 10 

48.  COMPOSITION  AND  PUNCTUATION. 

By  J.  Brenan i  o 

49.  DERIVATIVE   SPELLING-BOOK.     By 

J.  Rowbotham i  6 

5,  .     DA  TES  AND  E  VENTS.     A  Tabular  View 

of  English   History,   with   Tabular   Geography. 
By  Edgar  H.  Rand.  [/«  preparation. 


